15th Jewish Film Festival Opens

The 15th anniversary Jewish Film Festival, boasting eight world or North American premieres and offering 42 films this year, opens today in San Francisco and continues there through July 27. The festival also runs in Berkeley from July 29-Aug. 3.

While similar, smaller festivals are held in other cities around the country, this is the largest of its kind. The works come from 14 countries, and they are all by and about Jews.

This year’s festival has an underlying theme on the immigration and exile of Jews, and nearly all the movies scheduled pertain to this in some way. Five of the films will be about the experiences of Jews after the demise of the Soviet Union, while stories of exile will be told from Cuba, Mexico and all over Europe.

The festival’s opener is Israel’s “Sh’chur” (Magic), a film about a family caught between its Moroccan traditions and modern Israel that won a Special Jury Award at the 1995 Berlin Film Festival.

Also showing: “Don’t Touch My Holocaust,” which won best documentary at the 1994 Israeli Oscars; “Hava Nagila: The Jews of Cuba,” the first-prize winner at the Judah Magnes Museum’s Jewish Video Competition; “Under the Domim Tree,” Gila Almagor’s anticipated sequel to “Summer of Aviya”; and Poland’s “All That Really Matters,” a 1993 Academy Award nominee for best foreign language film.

Information: (510) 548-3456.