The 5th Moscow Jewish Film Festival will be held in the capital of Russia on June 23-30. This year, the festival marks its fifth anniversary, and it will feature 58 films, which is a record in the entire history of the festival.
General Producer of the Moscow Jewish Film Festival Egor Odintsov said that “this is largely due to the fact that this year the festival is trying to meet the accreditation criteria of the International Federation of Film Producers' Associations (FIAPF). One of the requirements of this accreditation is the presence of the main competition, which should include only international premieres, not older than 12 months prior to festival start.”
The main competition includes such films as 'Seder-masochism' by director Nina Paley (the U.S.), 'The Unorthodox' directed by Eliran Malka (Israel), 'The Interpreter' Martin Schulik (Slovakia), 'Red Cow' by Tsivia Barkai (Israel), 'Dolce Fine Giornata' by Jacek Borcuch (Poland), 'Fig Tree' by Alamork Davidian (Israel-Germany-France-Ethiopia), 'To Dust' by Shawn Snyder (the U.S.).
'To Dust' by director Shawn Snyder will open the 5th Moscow Jewish Film Festival, which will be attended by the director himself. In addition, there are even films in the full-length documentary film nomination, 11 films in the short documentary nomination, and 14 films in the short film nomination. In addition, there is a non-competitive program, which included a retrospective, special shows, as well as films that did not enter the competition for various reasons, many wonderful pictures will be presented,” Odintsov told the journalists.
The chairman of the jury, a member of the Emmy international television academy Timur Weinstein told about the prizes of the festival. “One prize is called 'The Key of Discovery'. It will be awarded in five nominations: 'Best Feature Film', 'Best Short Film', 'Best Documentary Feature', 'Best Short Documentary'. Traditionally, the jury members will choose a special prize winner. At the same time, the Honorary Prize 'For outstanding contribution to the development of Jewish cinema in Russia' and the award in 'The Best Russian Jewish-themed Film of the Year' nomination will be awarded at the festival.
Speaking with the correspondent of Vestnik Kavkaza, Weinstein said that he was born in Baku and, when coming home, he always sees a decent standard of living is ensured for the Jewish community in the capital of Azerbaijan.
“I was born in Baku. When it comes to Jewry, I am a European Jew, of Belarusian, Ukrainian origin. Unfortunately, life scattered us so much that is not fully clear, as is typical. But, you know, the Baku Jews, at least when I was born, were in fact the second largest nation there. Even now when I visit Baku I see that they treat everyone wonderfully there, because Baku is an international city, and a large number of new synagogues have been built there. I think that the life of the Jewish community in Baku has been at a very high level. There are a lot of meetings, events, involving many people. In general, relations between Azerbaijan and Israel are wonderful. Therefore, I am always happy to be back in my homeland, in Baku. My ancestors are buried there in the Jewish cemetery. It seems to me that this atmosphere, this friendship is preserved there and, I think, it will remain for many centuries. And it has always been so. My great-grandfather came to Baku in the late 19th century, and everyone lived long happy life then, and for me it's always a pleasure being there,” Timur Weinstein concluded.
