Stay tuned for more of our Sixteenth Season’s films.  You’ll have a chance to see more award winning films from some of the top film festivals making their New Mexico premiere at the Santa Fe JFF!

 

The boundary-breaking Broadway sensation INDECENT explodes onto the screen in a filmed presentation that captures every act of defiance.

Written by Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright Paula Vogel, INDECENT resurrects the true story of a 1923 Broadway scandal: a play featuring a love scene between two women, a troupe of immigrant artists, and an obscenity trial that shook American theater. What began as Sholem Asch’s Yiddish drama God of Vengeance became a lightning rod for censorship, antisemitism, and intolerance.

Now, this Tony Award–winning triumph arrives on screen with the same kinetic staging that made it unforgettable—an onstage klezmer band, a cast that morphs across generations, and a set that unfolds like a living archive. The result is a theatrical experience that feels urgent, modern, and fiercely alive.

INDECENT is presented by Paula Vogel in association with Broadway HD

 

Acclaimed filmmaker Eran Riklis returns with Reading Lolita in Tehran, a powerful and deeply moving adaptation of Azar Nafisi’s international bestselling memoir—an ode to the transformative power of literature in the face of repression.

Set against the shifting tides of post-revolutionary Iran, the film follows Azar, a courageous literature professor portrayed by Golshifteh Farahani, who refuses to surrender her voice—or her imagination—to a regime tightening its grip on intellectual freedom. Forced from the university, she gathers a small group of her most devoted female students in secret, inviting them into a hidden sanctuary where banned Western classics become lifelines.

With Riklis’s signature humanism and emotional clarity, Reading Lolita in Tehran captures an intimate portrait of resilience, friendship, and quiet rebellion. The film traces not only the evolution of a teacher and her students, but also the enduring belief that storytelling can challenge power, reclaim identity, and keep hope alive—even in the darkest of times.

Brought to life by an exceptional ensemble cast including Zar Amir Ebrahimi and Mina Kavani, and crafted with meticulous attention to authenticity, the film recreates 1980s Tehran with striking detail while resonating with urgent contemporary relevance.

At once intimate and expansive, Reading Lolita in Tehran is a stirring tribute to the women who dare to think freely—and a reminder that even in silence, stories can speak volumes.

Both screenings are Sold Out. To be added to the Wait List, send an email to admin@SantaFeJFF.org and indicate whether you are interested in tickets for the 6:45 PM screening in the Cinema, 7:00 PM screening in the Studio, or wherever there is availability.

What does it mean to do the right thing? This Ordinary Thing tells the remarkable true stories of everyday people who chose compassion over fear during the Holocaust, offering a deeply human portrait of courage when it mattered most. Drawing on never-before-seen archival footage, first hand testimonies, and color photographs by Santa Fe photographer Gay Block, the film is narrated by a stellar ensemble of actors including F. Murray Abraham, Helen Mirren, and Jeremy Irons.

The stories unfold not as tales of grand heroism, but as simple moral choices made under extraordinary circumstances. The film poses a haunting question: when faced with injustice, what would we do?

The screening, which is in commemoration of Holocaust Remembrance Day, is followed by a dessert reception with photographer Gay Block in attendance.

Tickets must be reconfirmed 24 hours before the screening. You will be sent a reminder to reconfirm.

INDECENT is the Tony Award-winning drama inspired by the true events surrounding the controversial 1923 Broadway debut of Sholem Asch’s God of Vengeance. Asch’s play was seen by some as a seminal work of Jewish culture, and by others as an act of traitorous libel. The play charts the history of an incendiary drama and the path of the artists who risked their careers and lives to perform it. Contains adult themes.

INDECENT is presented by Paula Vogel and Broadway HD

Both a love letter to Jewish resilience and a joyful reminder that identity is never as tidy as Scandinavian furniture, Swedishkayt: YidLife Crisis in Sweden is a warm, witty, and wonderfully meshugenah journey into the places you least expect Jewish life to thrive—and the places it’s been hiding all along.

Comedy duo Eli Batalion and Jamie Elman—also known as the kvetch-happy minds behind YidLife Crisis—travel to Stockholm to uncover a Jewish story few people know exists… including, at times, the people who live there. Preparing for a major live performance, the duo plunges headfirst into 250 years of Swedish Jewish history, encountering surprise ancestors, unlikely allies, and the revelation that Yiddish is not only alive in Sweden, but officially recognized by the government. (Yes. That Sweden.)

Along the way, Eli and Jamie navigate cultural revival, linguistic resurrection, and the deeply unsettling possibility that Jews can, in fact, be calm. Through hilariously awkward encounters and unexpectedly moving discoveries, Swedishkayt explores what it means for a culture to survive, adapt, and occasionally burst into song—often at inopportune moments.

Tender, intimate, and quietly devastating, Pink Lady is a powerful exploration of love under surveillance and identity under siege. Set within Jerusalem’s ultra-Orthodox community, the film follows Bati, a young woman whose carefully ordered life begins to fracture when her husband is targeted by anonymous accusations that expose a forbidden truth. As suspicion tightens and loyalties are tested, Bati must navigate the impossible space between faith, family, and the self she has never been allowed to claim.

Directed with Bergman’s trademark emotional precision, Pink Lady offers a rare, compassionate look inside a closed world—where devotion can become a prison, and love itself is an act of quiet rebellion. Anchored by deeply moving performances, the film asks a universal question: what is the price of living honestly when the cost is everything you’ve ever known?

Twelve-year-old Khaled, a boy from a Palestinian village, has dreamed all his life of seeing the sea. When a long-awaited school trip finally offers the chance, his excitement turns to heartbreak at a military checkpoint, where soldiers invalidate his permit and send him home. Refusing to let this denial define him, Khaled sets out alone toward the coast—guided only by hope, fragments of directions, and the belief that some horizons are worth chasing.

Meanwhile, his father Ribhi, an undocumented construction worker inside Israel, discovers that his son has gone missing. Forced to abandon the shadows that keep him safe, Ribhi begins a frantic search that risks arrest, deportation, and the fragile stability his family depends on.

Told through parallel journeys that move toward the same distant shoreline, The Sea is a tense and tender drama about borders—geographic, political, and emotional—and the lengths to which a child and a father will go to reclaim a dream. With intimate performances, the film offers a deeply human portrait of longing, resilience, and the universal pull of freedom.

They were stars. Rebels. Icons. Michael Tilson Thomas brings the story of his grandparents, Boris and and Bessie Thomashefsky, to life in this filmed version of the stage production of The Thomashefskys.

The Thomashefsky lit up New York’s stages with the passion of immigrant life and the boldness of American dreams. From the Bowery to Second Avenue, they built theaters, created new worlds, and shaped a culture. Their names became legend—so famous that to be “a real Thomashefsky” meant being dramatic, daring, unforgettable. And Bessie? She blazed her own trail, using the stage to fight for women’s rights, with characters so sharp and witty they still echo in comedy today. The Thomashefskys recreates their extraordinary legacy .

Tickets for this special screening are complimentary but must be reconfirmed 24 hours before the event.

A haunting blend of folklore, mysticism, and doomed romance, The Dybbuk is the crown jewel of Yiddish cinema. Based on S. Ansky’s legendary play, it tells the story of two friends who betroth their unborn children—only to unleash tragedy when the promise is broken. When Channon (Leon Liebgold) turns to Kabbalistic magic to win back his beloved Leah (Lili Liliana), love and destiny collide in a chilling tale of possession.

Filmed in Poland on the eve of WWII, this “Hasidic Gothic” masterpiece dissolves the line between the natural and supernatural. With expressionist style, evocative music, and luminous dance sequences, it captures both the spiritual depth and cultural richness of the shtetl world. Brought to life by some of the greatest talents of Polish Jewry, The Dybbuk endures as a mesmerizing portrait of love, loss, and the eternal struggle between fate and faith.

We thank the National Center for Jewish Film for the film, its restoration and all new English translation & subtitles.

A lively and witty documentary, Welcome to Yiddishland follows a new generation of artists bringing fresh life to the nearly-lost Yiddish language. From a bold Yiddish staging of Yentl in Melbourne to punk-Klezmer bands and trailblazing theatre in Berlin, the film reveals a vibrant global movement. Though many of these creators didn’t grow up speaking Yiddish, they’ve embraced its culture as a source of identity, inspiration, and joy—proving that this once-endangered language is alive and thriving.

JUST ADDED! Optional post-film deli supper.

Then join us at the Santa Fe Jewish Center for a post-film deli supper and live Klezmer music with Jordan Wax!

Co-directed by Israeli Guy Nativ and Iranian Zar Amir, TATAMI examines the intersection of world politics and sports through the lens of judo. It is a story of “personal freedom versus totalitarian control and the consequences when the two collide”.

When it looks likely that two female judokas, an Israeli and an Iranian, will face off in a World Judo Championship match, the Iranian, Leila, faces an impossible choice. Does she acquiesce to the Iranian regime’s demands to fake an injury to avoid competing against an Israeli or be branded a traitor and jeopardize the safety of her family.

TATAMI is the first time an Israeli and Iranian have co-directed a feature film. Zar Amir’s credentials also include the Best Actress Award at Cannes for her role in Holy Spider. Guy Nativ, who directed Golda, won an Academy Award for his short film Skin. TATAMI originally premiered at the Venice International Film Festival.

SNEAK PREVIEW at Violet Crown – Director Sandi DuBowski and Lab/Shul Co-founder Shira Kline in attendance for a live Q&A!

Filmed over 21 years, SABBATH QUEEN is the extraordinary story of one man’s quest to creatively and radically reinvent religion and ritual, challenge patriarchy and supremacy, champion interfaith love, and stand up for peace. Director Sandi DuBowski (TREMBLING BEFORE GOD) follows Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie, dynastic heir of 38 generations of Orthodox rabbis, on his epic journey as he tries to reconcile identities as drag-queen and spiritual leader.

SABBATH QUEEN asks what Jewish survival, and by extension traditional religion, means in a difficult rapidly changing 21st century where traditional religious observance no longer resonates. For Rabbi Lau-Lavie, the answer was in the creation of Lab/Shul, an everybody-friendly, God-optional, artist-driven, pop-up experimental congregation

Nominated for Best Documentary at Tribeca and a New York Times Critic’s Pick, SABBATH QUEEN is a rich and exhilarating examination of the intersections of tradition and freedom, ritual and innovation, loyalty and individuality. Director, Sandi DuBowski, and Lab/Shul co-founder and Ritual Director Shira Kline will be in attendance at the Sneak Preview for a live Q&A.

• Unplug and Recharge with a
• SPECIAL SABBATH QUEEN SHABBAT GATHERING!
• 7 PM, Fri. April 18 at the Universalist Unitarian Congregation
• Hosted by HaMakom

See the film then join us on April 18 when we gather for an extra-ordinary, everybody-friendly, God-optional Sabbath Queen Gathering, led by Lab/Shul’s Co-founderLavie and Ritual Director Shira Kline. Welcome the Sabbath with ritual, poetic and contemplative offerings, singing, deep learning and lively conversation, followed by sumptuous spread of desserts and coffee.

To RSVP, send an email to admin@SantaFeJFF.org.. RSVP’s for ticket holders for the film will be honored first.

November 1975, Paris. The appeal hearing of Jewish far-left activist Pierre Goldman is set to begin. Sentenced to life imprisonment for four armed robberies, one of which resulted in the death of two women, Goldman pleads not guilty to the murder charges.

Considered the trial of the century, the massively-covered court proceedings transform Goldman into a romantic figure and a hero of the intellectual left, even as the relationship with his young attorney Georges Kiejman frays. Ever the agitator for his ideals, the elusive and mercurial Goldman throws his own trial into chaos, risking a death sentence. The Goldman Case paints a  portrait of a militant revolutionary, but also of a society torn apart by patterns of racism and injustice that are still virulent today.

“Worthalter rightfully won this year’s best actor award at the Césars for playing Goldman as an irascible iconoclast with a hair-trigger temper who frequently transforms his own murder trial into a stage for bloviating rants — and yet remains sympathetic.”

Named one of last year’s best new operas by OPERA NOW Magazine, THEODOR is the story of Theodor Herzl, the visionary behind the modern State of Israel. Told through the eyes of both the young and elder Herzl, the opera traces his experience with rising antisemitism in Europe to his  recognition of the need for a Jewish State and the founding of the Zionist movement.  Composed by Yonatan Cnaan and directed by Ido Ricklin, the opera masterfully blends music, theater, and stunning visual elements to portray Herzl’s relentless quest for a Jewish belonging.

THEODOR premiered in May 2023 at Tel Aviv’s Israeli Opera House. This visual captivating opera was subsequently filmed and is just beginning its rollout to audiences worldwide.

We will be joined at intermission by the opera’s composer Yonatan Cnaan in a recorded conversation. Cnaan brings together his background in the classical world with his musical theater sensibility to an opera that “leaves you involved emotionally, intellectually and spiritually.”

And don’t miss our live webinar with Prof. Derek Penslar at 11 AM MT, Thursday, Oct. 30. Prof. Penslar is the Director of the Center for Jewish Studies at Harvard University and author of a dozen books including most recently Theodor Herzl: The Charismatic Leader (2020; German ed. 2022); and Zionism: An Emotional State (2023). For complimentary tickets to Zoom webinar, click here.

Imprisoned by the Soviets, orphaned by the Holocaust, elected Prime Minister, winner of the Nobel Prize yet strongly criticized for his conduct of the first Lebanon War, Menachem Begin was both a pillar of the State of Israel and a controversial leader. His life is a nuanced and complicated canvas that tells the story of key events in the history of modern Israel and its relationship to its Middle East neighbors. With rarely seen archival materials and revealing interviews with those who knew him, Upheaval portrays the life and essence of this complex man who left an indelible mark on Israel and the region.

Presented by UNM's International Studies Institute at UNM