20 years, and many still don't know local festival exists

I got to four films at this year’s Windsor Jewish Film Festival (last week). The opening night Farewell Mr. Haffmann (Fred Cavayé) starring perhaps France’s biggest male film star Daniel Auteuil turned out to be a treat – an acting duo between him and co-star Gilles Lellouche as Francois Mercier - which could have been set during the Holocaust or at any time or place. It’s a morality tale pure and simple, turning on honor and betrayal between two men…..Next up was the Tango Shalom (Gabriel Bologna), a zany comedy about an Orthodox rabbi (Jos Laniado) who must come up with funds to save his cash-starved shul. He’s an amateur dancer and when he hears about a tango competition with boffo winning bucks decides to enter. Problem: he can’t touch a woman other than his wife. An ingenious solution is found in this enjoyable ensemble family flick (think My Greek Fat Greek Wedding), though a tad long, with a both predictable and unpredictable ending…..The Replacement (Óscar Aibar), a Spanish crime thriller, was inspired by true events of the early 1980s. Cocaine smuggling, a policeman’s suspicious death and a certain expatriate community all come together in this fast-paced and well acted police procedural…..Time to Say Goodbye (Viviane Andereggen), is a story about a 12-year-old Hamburg boy about to face his Bar Mitzvah. He’s captivated by a certain religious surgical procedure. But the movie is really a kind of Wonder Years story about coming of age and the misty eyed crushes boys can have on beautiful adult mentors. 

It still surprises me that so many people in Windsor aren't aware of the Jewish film festival, which celeberated its 20th anniversary this year and is older than the better known Windsor International Film Festival. I ran into two people who were attending for the first time and were astonished they didn't previously know the festival existed. 

Meanwhile, I almost fell out of my chair when I opened The Detroit News’ entertainment section and saw a film review of the newly released How to Blow Up a Pipeline (Daniel Goldhaber). What? A film endorsing terrorism? But apparently this is simply pro forma now. And critics will write reviews without passing judgement on the contents (can you imagine if it was called How to Blow Up an Abortion Clinic?), as per the News. I found it sickening.