A walk in many backyards

KATHARINE HAMER AND CYNTHIA RAMSAY

The 24th annual Vancouver International Film Festival begins Sept. 29, with a new home base (the Vancouver International Film Centre on Seymour St.) and a raft of intriguing cinema from around the world. Unlike its star-studded sister in Toronto, the Vancouver festival generally draws smaller, quirkier entries – including several with Jewish content, both feature and documentary, from Israel, Europe and the United States. If there's an overriding theme this year, it's the troubles we face not just within our own families, but as a people.

Deciphering hatred

It has been on the best-seller list for more than a century and, until recently, was available for sale at Walmart. The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a favorite text among anti-Semites, was actually authored at the end of the 19th century by the Russian czar's secret police. It posits the idea that there is a Jewish conspiracy for world domination.

Documentary director Marc Levin uses this as a jumping-off point for his film, The Protocols of Zion, to explore present-day anti-Semitism in which, since 9/11, there has been an alarming increase. The native New Yorker explores the notion – one that spread like wildfire after the World Trade Centre tragedy – that no Jews died in the catastrophe; that they were somehow warned beforehand. This nasty rumor, of course, belies the fact that thousands of Jews died that day – as attested by the New York medical examiner who is also, coincidentally, a cantor at Levin's synagogue.

Levin notes that, as a youngster, he was aware of the Protocols, but says, "I thought it was a joke – like a comic book. I couldn't believe people took it seriously."

As Levin shows, there are numerous television shows in the Middle East treating the Protocols as gospel – and even on U.S. streets, there are wild accusations. "Don't you know that 33 cents of every Pepsi bottle you buy goes to Israel?" asserts one man.

One of Levin's great strengths is to have put himself in front of the camera in this film, debating fiercely with those he interviews. Among those he talks to is a neo-fascist leader who vehemently denies Hitler may have had self-hatred because of his Jewish background.

"Hitler, I don't see him as suicidal in the slightest," says the man (who sells, among other things, swastika-emblazoned merchandise). "Hitler," Levin reminds him, "committed suicide."

Protocols of Zion screens Thursday, Sept. 29, 7:15 p.m., and Wednesday, Oct. 5, 12:30 p.m., at Granville 7, Cinema 2.

Lost in the present

Toronto's Allan King calls his films "realist dramas." Really, they're documentaries – but in a style not often seen these days. There is no narration and King relies on natural sound and light and character behavior. His films (last year's Dying at Grace was a festival favorite) almost have the flavor of a family video.

It's a technique used to moving effect in Memory for Max, Ida, Claire and Company, which documents the lives of several residents at Toronto's Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care. Although King himself is not Jewish, all of his characters are, and their faith and culture are still strongly with them, even as their memories fade.

The characters are introduced by way of the name signs on their door and a collage of memorabilia: the way these people once were, with husbands, children, on holiday. Max is the thread of the film, though he never talks, except to sing one-liners in Yiddish. He walks the halls hanging precariously onto the railings – always wearing a full suit and hat and carrying a cane. He's doted on by the zaftig, rouge-covered Claire, the happiest of the residents until her memory begins to go. We meet Helen, a once-successful businesswoman, who has such advanced Alzheimer's that she has forgotten her own daughter. In a scene no doubt familiar to those with family suffering from dementia, Helen becomes so agitated that she attacks her caregivers. Then there's Fay, who's terribly lonely and constantly in tears over her lack of family visits, and Rachel, who can't remember being married for 37 years or that her beloved piano burned.

There is great sadness in the film, but also a tribute to happier times. In a moment of lucidity, Claire recalls her husband and how, "I used to get up in the morning and before I was even dressed, he would dance me around the whole floor. We were like two kids."

Memory for Max, Ida, Claire and Company runs Wednesday, Oct. 5, 6:40 p.m., at Granville 7, Cinema 2, and Sunday, Oct. 9, 3 p.m., at Pacific Cinémathèque.

Philosophy vs. Torah

"Passion is an illusion entailing a loss of autonomy and freedom," declares Laura to Eric, a young man she is tutoring in philosophy – a man her family hopes she will marry. Shockingly, to Eric, Laura seems certain of her belief in this view. In reality, it is the declaration of someone trying to convince herself.

Laura, who is from a Jewish Orthodox family, has actually fallen in love (lust?) with an Algerian Muslim man who works with her at a local mosque. Little Jerusalem (La Petite Jerusalem) centres around her attempts to control her passion, while her sister, Mathilde tries to awaken hers. Mathilde's husband is having an affair and she wants to win him back, but is fearful of sexual intimacy.

The sisters live together in a small apartment in Little Jerusalem, a district in Paris, along with their mother, Mathilde's husband and their four children. It is a crowded space full of tension. It is a home in a city full of tension, as synagogues are firebombed on occasion and Jewish men have been beaten by gangs of thugs.

These moments are tempered by drawn out scenes of Laura taking the subway or Laura walking in the city – every day she takes a walk, in imitation of Immanuel Kant's routine. Like the noted philosopher, she is trying to build up her resistance to what she considers the irrational demands of her body.

Director Karin Albou's decision to slow the pace of the film – to almost a standstill at times – takes away from its impact. What is a well-acted, compelling story with some potentially steamy sex scenes becomes kind of boring.

Little Jerusalem is in French with English subtitles. It screens Thursday, Oct. 6, at 11:30 a.m., and Sunday, Oct. 9, at 9:15 p.m., at Granville 7, Theatre 3.

Entertaining gamble

A sardonic comedy about family, Go for Zucker! (Alles Auf Zucker!) is one of the more entertaining Jewish-related films in this year's festival. But it will not please everyone, as it takes some shots at Judaism and plays up some negative stereotypes.

Jaeckie Zucker is a liar, cheat and hustler. The movie opens with him lying on a hospital bed, in a coma. He narrates the story: "I was born in 1947 as Jakob Zuckermann," which sounds Jewish, he says, but clarifies that he wasn't a part of "that club" until the previous week.

What happened then was that his double-dealing had caught up with him: his wife wanted a divorce, his banker-son wanted to have him arrested for not having repaid his debts and his mother had died, stating in her will that he must sit shivah with his long-estranged Orthodox brother if he wants his inheritance. Complicating matters, before his mother died, Zucker had entered himself in a high-stakes pool tournament for that weekend, a tournament he knew he could win – and needed to win for the cash prize.

What follows is a series of shams so that Zucker can attend the tournament's various competitions without openly violating the terms of his mother's will: a fake heart attack at his mother's funeral is but the first.

Interspersed with these attempts are many dysfunctional family moments. There are some funny scenes, as Zucker's wife tries to learn how to be Jewish, so as to hold the shivah properly and to be able to host her Orthodox in-laws: you Jews have so many rules, she complains to Zucker, there is no room for improvisation! And, when Zucker's brother accidentally takes some ecstasy, he shows some dance moves that would make Fiddler on the Roof's Tevye envious.

Despite his cheating ways, Zucker is a character with whom the audience (and his family) can empathize. While some scenes drag a bit, the overall pace is good and the film is fun to watch.

Winner of the Ernst Lubitsch Award for best German comedy and six Lola Awards (the German Oscars), including best film and best director, Go for Zucker! is in German with English subtitles. It plays on Thursday, Oct. 6, 4 p.m., at Granville 7, Theatre 7, and on Tuesday, Oct. 11, 9:30 p.m., at Visa Screening Room at the Vogue.

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