The locally produced Chicago Festival of Israeli Cinema, now in its second year, starts a 10-day run Thursday, with a sold-out premiere of “Someone to Run With.” All tickets: $10. For schedules and information about availability, visit: www.chicagofestivalofisraelicinema.org.
‘Someone to Run With’ ***
(Oded Davidoff, 2006)
A lost dog becomes the go-between for parallel, gradually intersecting stories in this affecting, strongly acted adaptation of David Grossman’s novel. It’s set among the street musicians and homeless of Jerusalem, focusing on 16-year-old Tamar (Bar Belfer, whose face the camera adores), who ditches her old life of comfort and protection for something less predictable. Soon she runs afoul of a shady performing arts “camp” (more like a prison), the lair of a manipulative dynamo who isn’t above keeping his residents hooked on heroin. Meantime….a young man (Yonatan Bar-Or) working as a dogcatcher follows an ownerless dog through the city streets in search of its rightful owner. The plotting and themes relate to countless Young Adult novels in many languages, but director Oded Davidoff navigates both the physical space of his locales and the potential cliches of the story with ease. By the end you have come to know a stimulating variety of resilient characters. In Hebrew with English subtitles. 1:58. No MPAA rating (parents cautioned for language and violence). 7:30 p.m. Thu., AMC Loews Pipers Alley. — Michael Phillips.
‘The Ashkenazim’ ** 1/2 (Dani Dotan and Dalia Meyerovich, 2006). A documentary look at young Israelis of European descent embracing their roots seems a better conversation starter than an in-depth look at a cultural divide. One young man changes his Sephardic-sounding name back to Handelman at the time of his ultra-Orthodox wedding, and another founds the Movement for Ashkenazi Identity to draw his peers back to the practices and lifestyle prevalent before the Holocaust destroyed much of that community. There’s no participation by the Sephardic Jews who inspire the subjects’ defensive posture, and a dissenting voice posits that Zionism, not the Nazis, will be the end of the Ashkenazi. Those looking for a movie and an argument will enjoy this. 0:50. No MPAA rating (acceptable for most audiences). 6:15 p.m. Oct. 25, Wilmette Theatre. — Maureen M. Hart
‘Salt of the Earth’ ** (Uri Barbash, 2006). Four Israeli army reservist pals band together for a casino heist to make good on the fortune one of their band — a hotshot reporter — has gambled away. The plans go awry and a cop and one of the friends are mortally wounded in a gun battle. As the thieves try to cover their trail, the reporter, returned from military service, is assigned to cover the story of the fallen cop as guilt grows and the detectives discover a clue that will break the case. The same twist was once used in an episode of “Magnum, P.I.,” and much of the story seems familiar and unsurprising. In Hebrew with English subtitles. 1:54. No MPAA rating (mature themes, violence). 8:30 p.m. Oct. 25, Wilmette Theatre . — Michael Esposito
‘Sweet Mud’ *** (Dror Shaul, 2006). Dvir lives in the children’s house on a kibbutz as he approaches his bar mitzvah. His father is dead, his brother on duty with the military and his mother, Miri, is in love with an aging Swiss judo champion-turned-restaurateur named Stephan. Then one of the neighbors, angry that Dvir’s dog has again “visited” his in-heat pooch, starts cuffing Dvir around. Stephan defends the boy, and for his effort, he is banished from the kibbutz and Miri tumbles into depression, while other kibbutz members eagerly seek to have her declared insane. Dvir faces his biggest test trying to save his mother. In Hebrew with English subtitles. 1:38. No MPAA rating (adult content, themes, sexual situations). 7:30 p.m. Oct. 20, AMC Loews Piper’s Alley; 6:30 p.m. Oct. 23, Wilmette Theatre. — M.E.
‘Paper Dolls’ *** (Tomer Heymann, 2006). A story of tolerance and its limits as tested on personal and national levels, this documentary follows a group of Filipino guest workers who have come to Israel to fill the labor gap created when the borders were closed to Palestianian workers in 2001. By day, they care for elderly Israelis with Alzheimer’s or cancer; by night they perform for their fellow Filipino ex-pats in a drag review called The Paper Dolls. Heymann, filmmaker and on-camera presence, has sympathy for his subjects, but his attempt to upgrade their performance venue ends in humiliation; an uptick in violence brings a shift in immigration policies that endangers their little “family.” In Hebrew, Tagalog and English with English subtitles. 1:23. No MPAA rating (parents cautioned for sexual content). 9 p.m. Oct. 21, AMC Loews Pipers Alley; 8:30 p.m. Oct. 22, Wilmette Theatre. — M.H.
**** EXCELLENT
*** GOOD
** FAIR
* POOR
