Occupied Paris, 1941: all members of the Jewish community are instructed to come forward and identify themselves to authorities. Dedicated jeweller Joseph Haffmann (Daniel Auteuil), fearing the worst, arranges for his family to flee the city and offers his employee François Mercier (Gilles Lellouche) the chance to take over his store until the conflict subsides. But his own attempts to escape are thwarted, and Haffmann is forced to seek his assistant’s protection.

Dessert Reception to follow the film.

The stunning accomplishments of the Jews raise a question no film has dared ask before. How do they do it? Some of the world’s most prominent thinkers tackle a mystery shrouded in ignorance and prejudice. They tear back the curtain on a taboo and draw a startling link between a people’s achievements and the darkest hours in its history.

  In this taut psychological thriller, a benign real estate deal becomes a sinister standoff between a bourgeois French couple and a dangerous negationist. A Parisian architect (Jérémie Renier) sells his flat’s unused cellar to a former history teacher (François Cluzet), well-mannered and seemingly normal. But when he takes up residence, the stranger’s secret life as an anti-Semitic conspiracy theorist emerges. As the couple struggles to rescind the sale, the increasingly menacing buyer insinuates himself with their naive teenage daughter, turning the family’s idyllic world upside down. Provocative and superbly acted, this nightmare scenario based on a true story will keep audiences guessing from one unsettling moment to the next.

Guest Speaker: Roy Hoffman

 Bad Nazi. Good Nazi is the extraordinary story of German officer Wilm Hosenfeld, immortalized in Roman Polanski’s film as the Nazi who saved The Pianist’s life. Hosenfeld’s personal diaries record his chilling, gradual disillusionment with the Nazi war machine he belonged to and that Szpilman, incredibly, is just one of sixty people he saved. Thalau’s group of supporters are inspired to have Hosenfeld memorialized at the local school he led before enlisting in Hitler’s army, but the villagers struggle to come to terms with the complicated legacy of a man they want to forget; a Nazi officer and a serial rescuer.

Guest Speaker: Dr. David Meola

 The Narrow Bridge is a searching journey into the souls of four people who, after searing pain, develop strengths they never had before. We watch with wonder as Bushra, Rami, Meytal and Bassam, women and men who lost a child or parent in violent conflict, transform their grief into a bridge for reconciliation. The film follows their paths from devastating trauma to courageous activism. But their stories are not just personal. They all belong to a controversial grassroots movement of broken-hearted people ‘Israeli Palestinian Bereaved Families’ who stand side-by-side to end the violence and build a future based on dignity and equality. Despite fierce political and family opposition, they refuse to give up.

Guest Speaker: Cathy O'Keefe

Dessert Reception to follow the film.

A docu-narrative film that tells the story of Asher Naim, an Israeli diplomat caught between worlds and facing a crisis of faith in himself and his country. Asher, a North-African Jew himself, is sent to Ethiopia to negotiate the escape of 15,000 Ethiopian Jews from a country collapsing under famine and civil war. Working with his Ethiopian-Israeli colleagues who, themselves, immigrated to Israel a decade earlier, Asher and his partners begin to question if the Israeli government is serious or using the operation as part of an elaborate publicity stunt against claims that “Zionism is Racism.” With rebel forces closing in on the capital, Asher’s faith in his mission is put to the test as he navigates the treacherous world of bureaucracy and politics in Ethiopia, Israel, and the US.