The St. Louis Jewish Film Festival returns, April 7-18, with a wide-ranging program of international films with Jewish themes. There are several things new about this year’s festival, including a new venue and the return of handy, printed programs. 

The film festival kicks off with a special Opening Night program featuring five short Israeli films by graduate students in Israel’s premier film program at Sapir College on April 7 at 4 p.m. at the B&B Theater in Creve Coeur. 

The Opening Night program aims to both show solidarity with Israel and highlight the filmmakers coming out of this premier Israel film program. When Hamas brutally attacked Israel on Oct. 7, Sapir College in Sderot, Israel was forced to close and evacuated. When the college shutdown, the students in its top-notch film program were in the last weeks of completing their final film projects, which were supposed to be shown at the annual Cinema South Festival. It was canceled because of the war.

John Wilson, director of cultural arts at the Jewish Community Center, heard about the Sapir film students when the father of one student filmmaker contacted him. 

“The producer of the film ‘Elinor’ is Yasmin Hoffman. Her father, Stan Hoffman, lives here in St. Louis,” Wilson explained. “Stan originally reached out to me to inquire if we would be interested in making any of the Sapir College films a part of our St. Louis Jewish Film Festival as a way to honor these Israeli student filmmakers who had just had their lives, and their craft turned upside down by the events of October 7th, and the subsequent war.

“I immediately thought it was a fantastic idea, and it soon became the vehicle for Opening Day, and kicking off our 29th annual Jewish Film Festival.”

Rotem Murat, head of distribution at the School of Audio & Visual Arts at Sapir College, expressed gratitude for “… the exciting opportunity to collaborate with St. Louis Jewish Film Festival.” 

“It means a lot to us when colleagues around the world express their willingness to share our films and stories in these hard times,” Murat said.

“At first, we didn’t know how many student films we would show, but after watching about a dozen, and choosing five, I realized that dedicating one of our festival days to only the Sapir films would make a very special event,” Wilson said. 

“Once that was in place, it was a natural progression to give these films the honor of opening the festival. Also, every day we were reading or watching more news out of Israel, and the war was always in the back of our minds. It felt like giving the Sapir films such a prominent place in our festival was a significant way we could support these filmmakers, but in a larger sense, support Israel,” he said.

The five films chosen are “Unwell Mind,” “Pepchook,” “Elinor,” “Shelters” and “People Asleep and the Water as Well.” Hoffman, producer of “Elinor,” will be in attendance.  Each of the five short films is a little gem, as polished as any professional production. Unfortunately, some of the people in the films, or their locations, were directly impacted by the Oct. 7 attacks. 

“ ‘Unwell Mind’ is just a beautiful story,” said Wilson. “It’s about Danna, a 28-year-old mentor for the intellectually disabled Yael (who is 36). Their common ground is the problems they have with their respective boyfriends, and how these women bond in their friendship as they learn more about one another.

“[Sadly], Sami Keidar, Yael’s father, was murdered in the Oct. 7 attack,” Wilson continued. “Ofra Keidar, Yael’s mother, was taken as a hostage to Gaza, later to be found dead under Hamas’ control. So tragic…”

“Pepchook,” Wilson said, is the festival’s only animated film. It’s about Leafa, who lives in Samoa, and Pepchook, an Israeli. They meet working on a cruise ship and immediately fall in love. But their cultural differences cause a great strain when she travels from Israel to Samoa to visit him. 

“It has a particular unexpected punch at the end that makes the film just as relevant as it is funny and cute,” Wilson added.

He described “Elinor” as a fun, modern comedy about a young woman who moves to a kibbutz alone to fulfill her dream of writing. But her time there just turns into a comedy of errors, and she learns that being alone is not so simple. 

“This film is fast-paced and full of laughs,” Wilson said.

“And it was filmed on Kibbutz Nir Am, which came under attack on Oct. 7 and was masterfully defended by Inbal Rabin-Liberman, the 26-year-old female head of security who staved off the attacks with her company, killing several terrorists, and holding the rest out until the (Israel Defense Forces) arrived,” Wilson added.

The documentary, “Shelters,” provides audiences with an inside look of the “normalcy” of living under constant threat while making your home in Israel, and how the tens of thousands of shelters all over the country provide a place in which to run when the sirens start to blare, Wilson said. 

“One of the film’s protagonists, Haim Peri, a 79-year-old, confronted the terrorists who infiltrated his home in Kibbutz Nir Oz and saved the life of his wife. Unfortunately, he was abducted and taken to the Gaza Strip by Hamas terrorists,” Wilson said.

“ ‘People Asleep and the Water as Well’ is a really wonderful story about a Muslim [guard and caretaker] in Marrakech, Morocco who tends the Jewish cemetery in the heart of the city,” Wilson said. “After everything happening in the world, this movie captures the equality and the camaraderie we all want to feel as human beings.”

‘St. Louis Jewish Film Festival’

WHEN: April 7 – 18
WHERE:  B&B Theater, 12657 Olive Blvd. in Creve Coeur
OPENING EVENT: 4 to 5:30 p.m. April 7 at the B&B Theater. Tickets for the opening night program are $20. For more information, visit stljewishfilmfestival.org. Due to theater capacity and current ticket sales for Opening Day, festival organizers strongly encourage purchasing tickets as early as possible.