Announcing the offical selection of the 20th Long Beach Film Festival

Filmmaker depicts women enemies joining forces to stop the killing of their children

Announcing the offical selection of the 20th Long Beach Film Festival

Al Rudis | Long Beach Jewish Film Festival Committee Member and President of the Alpert Classic Film Society

It’s women talking, but women who would normally never exchange a single word.

The women are Jewish Israelis despised by many in their community and Palestinians who are equally reviled in their neighborhoods.

They support leaders and movements that are on opposite sides in the struggle over Israel. Yet the Jews ignore the picture of Yasser Arafat proudly hanging on the wall behind the Palestinian women.

The reason they are together is they have one thing in common. Children of the Palestinian women were killed by Israelis and children of the Israeli women were killed by Palestinians.

“The Narrow Bridge,” the closing film of the 20th Long Beach Jewish Film Festival, documents the strange story of why, instead of hating each other, these women are working together to end the cycle of killing – even as they are being verbally attacked and sometimes harassed by political leaders on both sides.

After the film, which will be shown Sunday, Jan. 21, at 4 p.m., the audience will be joined from Israel by the film’s director in a video conference. Director Ether Takac is also a child and adult trauma psychologist, treating both Palestinians and Israelis. She will talk about how she came to make the film and take questions.

The 20th Long Beach Jewish Film Festival kicks off its five films on Wednesday, Jan. 17, on a more light-hearted note with “Marrying Myself,” a wacky romantic comedy about an Israeli woman who’s unlucky in love but still wants to have a fantasy wedding.

Showing Thursday night Jan. 18, is “The Story of Annette Zelman,” a drama based on the true story of Jewish and Catholic star-crossed lovers in Nazi-occupied France.

Saturday night’s Jan. 20, film is “Matchmaking,” a comedy that was Israel’s biggest box-office hit last year, maybe because it makes fun of both the Mizrachi and Ashkenazi communities.

“Farewell, Mr. Haffman,” being shown Sunday, Jan. 21, at 1 p.m. is a drama, also set in occupied France, about a family that must put its business and its very lives in the hands of an employee.

Tickets and festival passes will be available soon at alpertjcc.org. The Long Beach Jewish Film Festival is made possible, in part, by sponsors whose generosity sustains local, national and international Jewish art and culture. Individuals and businesses interested in becoming a Film Festival sponsor should contact Kevin Giser at kgiser@jewishlongbeach.org