Passage to Sweden Film Poster

Scandinavian Morality During WWII

Passage to Sweden Released January 27, 2021 (USA) 58 minutes Directed by Suzannah Warlick Bubble Soup Productions Documentary, English Why do countries behave so differently toward their religious and ethnic minorities? Are nations’ education systems so divergent that their citizens develop distinct moral codes? How much does leadership matter? Why do some ordinary people risk their lives to save others?  In her recently released documentary, Passage to Sweden, director, producer and writer Suzannah Warlick examines these vital questions through the prism of the little-known story of Scandinavian Jews’ (and those in Budapest who were rescued by Swedish national Raoul Wallenberg) widely differing experiences during World War II. Warlick shot 130 hours of material from which she has skillfully woven a treasure trove of archival film footage, photographs and interviews with people who lived in Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Hungary through the war...

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Still from Shiva Baby

A Funeral Farce (Shiva Baby)

Shiva Baby Released April 2, 2021 (USA) 1 hour 17 minutes Directed by Emma Seligman Neon Heart Productions Comedy, English When Danielle’s overbearing mother presses her into attending a shiva, a series of disasters converge over the span of several hours. Shiva Baby, directed by Emma Seligman, is a taut, finely scripted comedy in which emotional tensions, hidden secrets and discomforting personal interactions tumble out so swiftly that the audience is on tenterhooks wondering where this car crash will end. Danielle, played by Rachel Sennott (High Maintenance, Call Your Mother), is a bisexual woman who has just graduated with a degree in gender business studies, but she is aimless and unemployed. She has told her parents that she has what she euphemistically calls a part-time “babysitting” job that, in reality, involves getting paid for sex with a married man. Her parents’ desire for...

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The Superhero Haggadah

The Superhero Haggadah: When Monoculture Meets Mono-Judaism

We live in a disjointed media market. Gone is the monocultural dominance and the sense of camaraderie you and your coworkers would feel as you gathered around the watercooler to discuss the latest twist on Lost. Instead, we binge whatever Netflix series our personal algorithm drops in our queue or turn to The Office for the umpteenth time. Jews too live in a disjointed market, albeit a religious one. Everyone knows the expression “two Jews, three opinions.” Whether it’s politics, God or Israel, we have never been able to come to a consensus on anything. Heck, we can’t even agree on how to spell the holiday Chanukkah Chanukah Hanukkah.  However, when it comes to Passover, the Jewish people display a certain level of unity and community not seen throughout the rest of the year. On the...

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Movie Review: Tango Shalom

Tango Shalom | The Dancing Rabbi of Crown Heights

Tango Shalom Released February 11, 2021 1 hour 55 minutes Directed by Gabriel Bologna Convivencia Forever Films Comedy, Family, Dance: English Hasidic rabbi Moshe Yehuda is a father of five whose Hebrew school is on the verge of bankruptcy. His brother, Rahamim, is entangled in a scam while simultaneously begging for help to pay for his upcoming wedding to, oy, a progressive woman. This disastrous state of affairs is exacerbated by their mother’s antipathy toward Rahamim’s fiancée, Marina Zlotkin, as well as her son’s future mother-in-law, Leah. Rabbi Yehuda, a talented amateur hora dancer in his spare time, tramps across Brooklyn in search of paid employment. With no end in sight to his mounting tsuris, he and his family face disastrous financial and emotional ruin. But then one day, while waiting at a bus stop, Moshe hears music coming from a Latin...

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