January

DAVAR FILM

Wednesday 26th January 8.00pm

LEBANON

Moaz portrays an autobiographical account of his experiences as a tank commander during the Lebanon war in 1982. A very human portrayal of the interaction of four young rookie Israeli soldiers (Asi the insecure commander, Shmulik the trigger-unhappy gunner, Yigal the anxious driver and Herzel the loader) caught up in a confusing situation from which nobody wins in a powerful anti-war movie. With Yoav Donat, Itay Tiran, Oshiri Cohen and Michael Moshonov.

“By refusing to engage with the reality of the war beyond the scope
of the tank, however, Maoz keeps his vision brutally focused in a way
that war films rarely manage.” Film Journal

Winner of the Golden Lion Award at the Venice film festival.

 

February

DAVAR TALK

Monday 7th February 7.30

ART IN EXILE: CHAGALL AND THE AVANT-GARDE
Theodora Clarke, (University of Bristol)

Marc Chagall is considered a pioneer of modernism and one of the greatest figurative Jewish artists of the twentieth century. A native Russian by birth, he subsequently moved to Paris in 1910 where Cubism was the dominant art form. This talk explores how Chagall’s style evolved and will examine recurrent visual themes such as biblical and Jewish imagery, the circus, lovers and dream-like fantasies. We shall consider how his interactions with leading figures of the Parisian avant-garde affected his artistic development. He knew personally many of the major artists, critics, dealers and poets in Paris including Guillaume Apollianaire, Blaise Cendras and Ambroise Vollard. Significant attention will be on Sonia and Robert Delaunay whose new Orphic school of painting with its intense colour inspired Chagall. Specific case studies will include Chagall’s Homage to Apollinaire (1911-12), I and the Village (1911) and The Birthday (1915). Using elements of biography, pictorial analysis and cultural history, we will trace how Chagall became a pioneering artist of the twentieth century. As Picasso once said: “When Matisse dies, Chagall will be the only painter left who understands what colour really is.”

Tickets £3 Davar members • £5 non-members
Bradbury Hall, Trinity Church, Waterford Road, Henleaze, Bristol, BS9 4BT

 

DAVAR FILM

Wednesday 23rd February • 8.00pm

THE CONCERT

Wednesday 23 February 8.00pm
Dir./Scr. Radu Mihaileanu France/Germany/Bulgaria/Italy 2009 122mins Cert 15 Subtitled
Renowned conductor of the Bolshoi Orchestra Andrei Filipov (Alexei Guskov), was fired at the zenith of his career for hiring and refusing to sack the Jewish musicians in the orchestra thirty years ago. He remains employed, but as a cleaner, and intercepts a fax urgently requesting the Bolshoi to stand in for a sudden cancellation in Paris. Filipov steals the fax, hitting upon the idea of rounding up his former colleagues with the help of his friend and former cellist Sacha, to take up the offer, and to pose as the Bolshoi. The drama unfolds with plenty of humour and humanity as the melting pot of Russians, gypsies and Jews respond to their new demands. Through the music, the Slavonic eastern culture becomes harmoniously integrated with the West. The action is swept along by the hauntingly memorable pieces performed by the Budapest Symphony Orchestra. With real-life French ‘star’ violinist Melanie Laurent, and Miou Miou as an old flame of Andrei. Script co-written by the director and Alain-Michel Blanc (former Spielberg collaborator) from an original story by Hector Cabello Reyer and Thierry Degrandi.

“As the film’s title obviously states, there is a concert as the centrepiece
of this film and it is one of those moments of sheer cinematic
exuberance” Thomas Caldwell

DAVAR TALK

Wednesday 2nd March 8.00

RICHARD ZIMLER:
IN SEARCH OF THE SILENCED

Author of a series of international bestsellers,
including The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon and
Hunting Midnight, Richard will discuss how
historical fiction can truly enrich and expand
our understanding of both the world and
ourselves.

He will be talking about his most recent
book The Warsaw Anagrams, a stunning
and chilling literary thriller set in 1940 in
the stark unforgiving Warsaw Ghetto,
when over 400,000 Jews were sealed
inside a tiny area of the Polish capital. He
will also be showing his award-winning
short film The Slow Mirror, discussing the
surprising connection between both works.
The Slow Mirror is based on a short story by
Richard Zimler, who wrote the screenplay.
It was awarded the 2010 Best Drama prize
by the New York City Downtown Short Film
Festival. The film stars Portuguese actresses
Gracinda Nave and Marta Peneda, as well
as Zimler himself. There is a trailer on You
Tube ("The Slow Mirror - trailer")

Tickets £3 Davar members • £5 non-members

The Atrium • Redland Green School • Redland Court Road • BS6 7EH

Tuesday 8th March 8.00

PRODUCING THE GOODS: MICHAEL KLINGER - BRITAIN'S FORGOTTEN JEWISH MOVIE MOGUL
Andrew Spicer, (University of the West of England)

Michael Klinger’s name barely features in accounts of the British film industry, yet he was the most successful British independent film producer of the 1970s. A working-class, Soho Jew, the son of a tailor’s presser who had emigrated from Poland, Klinger was a self-made success, a passionate socialist who always remained an outsider and was unable to find funding for any of his films from England. This talk explores aspects of Klinger’s fascinating and neglected career and will try to define the ways in which his Jewishness shaped his work. In particular, it will concentrate on his production of Rachel’s Man (1976), advertised as: ‘the world’s oldest and greatest love story photographed in the actual locations where the Old Testament story took place by Moshe Mizrahi Israel’s most celebrated film-maker’. A film always at odds with Klinger’s usual commercial logic, he described it as a ‘labour of love’ to aid the homeland and it exemplifies his ‘muscular Judaism’.

Tickets £3 Davar members • £5 non-members

Horfield Quaker Meeting • 300 Gloucester Road • Horfield Bristol BS7 8PD

DAVAR FILM

Wednesday 30 March 8.00pm

AJAMI

Dirs Scandar Copti, Yaron Shani Israel/Germany 2009 125mins Cert 15 Subtitled

In Ajami, a district of Jaffa, Tel Aviv where Arabs, Jews and Christians live in close proximity, tensions are rife, not only between the faiths and races, but between loyalties within the different groups. Co-directors, Arab-Israeli Scandar Copti and Jewish-Israeli Yaron Shani, draw upon real-life inhabitants, casting close to reality: Jewish cop Dando is a real-life ex-policeman, and the film is shot on the streets of the neighbourhood itself, so the conflicts, tensions and emotional family dramas feel very close to the bone. Five interlinked stories showing the different points of view of people sharing the same reality, lead to a powerful, emotionally-charged yet uncompromising film.

“Using non-professional actors, Ajami's strands give an unusually
nuanced insight to life in Israel, its confusion of identities and passions.
Intelligently, the directors offer no glib solutions or sermons
and allow the considerable energy of its images to sweep viewers
along.” Jason Solomons

Oscar nominated Best Foreign Film 2009
London Film Festival Sutherland Award for most original first feature