Next Jewish Film Fest on June 26 entries set against backdrop of looming WWII
Bozeman’s fifth annual Jewish Film Festival continues with a pair of presentations featuring World War II-era films. The Tobacconist is first up on Thursday, June 20th. The Last Supper follows on Wednesday, June 26th. Both screenings will begin at 7pm at the Procrastinator Theater in the Strand Union Building on the Montana State university campus.
A coming-of-age narrative set against the backdrop of impending war, The Tobacconist walks the line between the personal and the political with varying degrees of confidence. This story of a young country boy who takes a job in a Viennese tobacconist in 1937 is at its best when it distills the growing fascist threat through his journey to manhood. Attempts to mine deeper psychological territory through his dreams – which he begins to register after befriending shop customer Sigmund Freud – are less successful.
On the day Hitler assumes power, an affluent German-Jewish family comes together for dinner in The Last Supper. Most of them, like many Germans at the time, do not take the Nazis seriously. When Leah announces her plans to emigrate to Palestine, her family talks her down. But when Michael indicates he’s actually an admirer of the National Socialist Movement, the family is on the brink of being torn apart.
The Jewish Film Festival is organized and sponsored by Congregation Beth Shalom, along with MSU’s Jewish Student Association, MSU Diversity and Inclusion Student Commons, and Bozeman Film Society.
Final films to be shown at the Procrastinator include Red Cow on July 3rd, followed by The Light of Hope to close this year’s slate on July 17th. All films begin at 7pm. Admission is free and open to the public. For descriptions of all films, please visit www.bethshalombozeman.org/community/#specialevents. •