Thursday, May

MID-ATLANTIC PREMIERE TV Narrative

LABYRINTH OF PEACE

Dir. Mike Schaerer | 300 min Switzerland | 2020 Swiss and German w/English subtitles

It is 1945. The war is over. Switzerland, the neutral small country at the heart of Europe, was all but spared. Klara, her fiancé Johann, and his brother Egon are looking bright-eyed into the future.

While Klara tries to mend the wounds of the war by caring for young, displaced Holocaust survivors, Johann, who works for her industrialist father, hopes to save and modernize his father-in-law’s well-established yet troubled textile company. Just home from military service, Egon takes his first steps in the Attorney General’s office. His mission: to hunt down escaped Nazis.

The six episodes of the mini-series are presented in two parts.

Thursday, May 12, 8:15 PM – Bethesda Row Cinema (episodes 1-3)

Thursday, May 19, 7:50 PM – Bethesda Row Cinema (episodes 4-6) Sunday, May 15, 2:15 PM – Bethesda Row Cinema

Saturday, May 21, 6:15 PM – AFI Silver Theatre

DC PREMIERE Narrative

LET IT BE MORNING

Dir. Eran Kolirin | 101 min Israel, France | 2021 Arabic and Hebrew w/English subtitles

Israeli Submission for Best International Feature Oscar, 2022

Sami, a middle-class Palestinian telecom executive, returns to his childhood village for his younger brother’s wedding. As he starts his journey back to Jerusalem with his wife and child, he discovers the villagers have been placed under military siege.

When the power goes out too, Sami is left to ponder his life choices and whether his sense of security as an Israeli citizen has been nothing but an illusion.

Based on Sayed Kashua’s novel, Eran Kolirin’s (The Band’s Visit) new film, which premiered at Cannes this year, offers an acerbic, if whimsical, look at the conflict.

MID-ATLANTIC PREMIERE Documentary

THE LEVYS OF MONTICELLO

Dir. Steven Pressman | 70 min USA | 2021

Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello residence stands as a complex and paradoxical symbol of Democracy. Designed by Jefferson, built and tended by slaves, the palatial Virginia plantation was presidential retreat, retirement home, and final resting place.

After it was sold due to mounting debts, Uriah Phillips Levy—a Jewish naval officer and fervent believer in Jeffersonian ideals—became its unlikely caretaker, restoring and saving the estate from ruin with the help of his family. The story behind this national treasure confronts the racism and anti-Semitism that remain part of the national narrative.

Sunday, May 15, 2:30 PM – Bethesda Row Cinema

Tuesday, May 17, 8:15 PM – EDCJCC MID-ATLANTIC PREMIERE Narrative

LOVE & MAZEL TOV

Dir. Wolfgang Murnberger | 88 min Germany | 2020 German w/English subtitles

Anne has a crush on Judaism, but she isn’t a member of the tribe. Her bookstore specializes in Jewish literature, she volunteers in a Jewish retirement home, and she helps a Holocaust survivor publicize his memoir.

When she meets Daniel, a charming doctor she wrongly assumes to be Jewish, the two hit it off. Smitten, he plays along, but as real romantic feelings develop, the lie at the heart of it all becomes too much to bear.

A clever take on social appropriation and historical guilt, this warmhearted look at modern love from director Wolfang Murnberger (My Best Enemy) is full of thought-provoking laughs.

Thursday, May 12, 6:15 PM – Bethesda Row Cinema

Saturday, May 21, 6:15 PM – EDCJCC