Barbara joined me for two of them, and Sandy came for the one on Saturday.
I'm fairly sure that's because that one had a dessert reception.
(smile!)
It also happened to be the most cheerful of the three.
Titled "Where Life Begins", it featured a citron farm in southern Italy, with much of the film in French, and had a quote from a book by Albert Camus that resonated with me perhaps as much as it had with the farmer.
But first, what made this citron farm so central to the movie?
It kept a patch of citron trees specifically for its Jewish customers, trees that had not been grafted onto other trunks for better yield and health, trees whose Kosher fruit was necessary for the 7-day celebration of Sukkot, all in accordance with the father's custom.
So, the fall season had come and the French sect had traveled to harvest by hand the fruit they would use in their religious ceremony.
The farmer, who had taken over the business after his dad died, allowed the group to stay on his land.
He struck up a friendship with the 26-year-old, unmarried daughter of the group's religious leader, a young woman under pressure to wed a young man in the group and follow in the ways of their culture... but she did not want that life, nor did she want to distress her folks.
She had found an anonymous online forum to vent her frustrations, and the farmer had noticed after she had borrowed use of his computer.
He knew about that rock and hard place, himself; his wife and children had remained in Rome when he took over the farm, in abeyance to his father's wishes.
Life was difficult, but he found solace at a secluded spot in the citron orchard, at a high point overlooking the Mediterranean sea, a spot his dad had called the Garden of Eden.
Very nice inside joke from the writer, non รจ questo?
And just what was the quote from the philosopher?
"Sometimes different is simply having the courage to be yourself."
Of course that would speak to my heart!
It spoke to hers, too... and eventually to his, as the film's end found him again in the little garden clearing overlooking the sea.
(smile!)
So, that was Saturday.
Thursday held a matinee screening of "The Barn", a film from 2017.
So, here's the history of how that film came to be.
As a 14-year-old, Rachel Kastner's class had gone to Poland, as part of their studies of the Holocaust... and she met Paulina, the woman who had helped hide Rachel's grandfather from the Nazis when he was just a young boy.
Captivated by the encounter, Rachel had returned home, determined to bring her Grandpa, Karl Shapiro, back to the area with her, to meet the very old Paulina.
Her grandfather finally relented and joined her when he saw that she was determined to go, either with or without him.
The film is a documentary of their travels, with Rachel insistent on finding the barn under which the Jewish families had been hidden until freed when the Russians took over.
I very much liked Shapiro.
He knew that his granddaughter thought he needed closure, so he had gone with her, knowing full well it was she who needed to put his past to rest.
I look forward to seeing it when it's screened again, next month, to coincide with her visit to the JEA... and her luncheon with President Biden later that week!
Pretty exciting!
(smile!)
Then, tonight, was a piece of history that no one in the audience seemed to have known: a student rebellion in Poland, over a censored play, that led to the eviction of all the Jews in that country.
And just how far back in time was that?
Back in the 1930's or 1940's?
Nope.
It was early March of 1968, hence the movie's title: "March '68".
Yes, 1968.
The film is full of American music from that time, something that really surprised me - songs such as "Route 66".
No one seemed to have an answer as to why that was in the soundtrack.
Perhaps that was to reflect the unrest in Europe through the lens of that in the USA?
Perhaps.
I can only say that I, as well as everyone else there, had come for the love story between a Protestant boy and a half-Jewish girl, as promised in the film synopsis.
Sure, we did get that... but it was wrapped inside a story of generational bias and government shenanigans on behalf of ethnically biased leaders.
Definitely not what Barbara or I had expected.
All in all, this trio has been rather sobering and a bit sad.
Here's hoping the final two films of the SJCAF will put a happy cap on the festival.
One of my absolute favorite episodes of "The X-Files" has just started.
Yes, that would be "The Unnatural", granting me baseball and humor!
i thank You, God.
And here's something I had not realized before: David Duchovny wrote and directed it - how cool is that?
It makes me wonder... does that animatronic coin bank, with the baseball player who tips his hat as he takes in the deposited dime, belong to the actor/writer/director?
My money (all puns intended) says it does.
Now, back to the story of the alien who just wanted to be a man...
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