Calling For a Mission at New York Jewish Film Festival 2025 – BRAZILIAN PRESS // O maior jornal brasileiro fora do Brasil
By Roger Costa
MIDAS MAN
Award-winning director Joe Stephenson delivers his best film yet with this crowd-pleasing and vibrant biopic on Brian Epstein, the furniture shop owner turned the smartest music manager in the world when he meets a boy band called The Beatles in early 1960’s Liverpool. Jacob Fortune-Lloyd is fabulous as Epstein, embodying his character with charisma, soft humor and subtle melancholy, all while creating a direct contact to the audience- he constantly looks at the camera to emphasize some key situations. Focusing on his ahead-of-his-time behavior, being Jewish, artsy, gay and a music lover at a dangerous time, co-writer and director Stephenson conceives a relatable and compassionate story about an incredible show business man. He also does a great job delivering prompt facts and curious notes on The Beatles’ ascension, such as their The Ed Sullivan Show career-making appearance (an awesome cameo by Jay Leno), the controversy and burning records consequences of the comments comparing their popularity to Jesus’ and their complicated inner relationships. Punctuated by upbeat musical numbers perfectly transporting us to that era of reckless youth and rock ‘n roll, the result is a contagiously fun, wonderfully performed (Emily Watson and Eddie Marsan are over the top as Epstein’s parents) and accurate account on the sacrifices, challenges and success made in the name of love and art.
(Screens January 16. Director in person).
TROPICAL TORAH
Unsettling and highly emotional, this documentary directed by Ezra Axelrod, Gloria Nancy Monsalve, and Jimmy Ferguson centers on the struggle of a Colombian family Orthodox Jewish-converted trying to escape the horrors of the drug war in Cali to make a better living in the Promised Land of Israel. Gaining access to their daily activities and preparations, the directors crafted an intimate, sensitive and humane look at the migrant experience and its expectations. Capturing real moments of family support and shared love, through parents Isska and Menajem and their two daughters, the film invites for a meditation on faith, our role in the world and our call as citizens while following the family’s dream of a better living.
(Screens January 20. Director in person).
THE OTHER
Gathering testimonies from both Palestinians and Israelis who had lost someone and somehow had come together to fight against the never-ending Middle-East conflict, documentarian Joy Sela captures the honesty, pain and grieving of a few artists, activists and civilians reflecting on the other side of the war: the empathy for one another. Filmed from 2017 to after the October 7 attacks, the film is heartbreaking and harsh, sometimes very difficult to endure, but very necessary. As accurate as Oscar contender “No Other Land”, Sela’s film also goes deep in the occupation and demolition issues, making it an important piece of history, archiving some of the most horrifying war crimes. Fueled by dialogs and perspectives trying to deal with anger, pain and loss, seen from both sides affected and hurt by war, it leaves a tremendous impact with its antiwar message.
(Screens January 22. Director in person).
(Presented by Film at Lincoln Center and The Jewish Musuem, the 34th New York Jewish Film Festival runs January 15-29 at Walter Reade Theater, 165 West 65th Street, Manhattan. Go to https://www.filmlinc.org/ for details).
