The UK Jewish Film Festival comes to Manchester this November

The UK Jewish Film Festival touches down in Manchester this November, bringing with it a two-week lineup of global hits, short films and hard-hitting documentaries dedicated to championing contemporary Jewish cinema.

Cineworld Parrs Wood plays host to the festival’s opening night gala on Thu 20 Nov, where Ken Scott’s Once Upon My Mother takes centre stage. Based on Roland Perez’s bestselling autobiographical novel, the big-hearted big screen adaptation is described as ‘a celebration of a mother’s love in its most profound form’, set to a soundtrack of French pop classics, including tracks by Jewish icon, Sylvie Vartan, who also appears in the film.

Also forming a key part of the programme will be British-Jewish Life on Film: Manchester. Happening on Wed 3 Dec at HOME, the evening will feature a mixture of short documentaries and dramas that capture the vitality and huge diversity of British Jewish life.

Amongst the highlights are the world premieres of Sally Patterson’s Fighting Back, a short film about an Orthodox Jewish martial artist, Marcos and Michelle Wolodarsky’s Liorah, which follows rising art-world star Liorah Tchiprout, and Priya Basra’s Ink, which explores a British-Jewish tattooist challenging stereotypes of Judaism and identity, using ink to reclaim his faith.

Elsewhere in the programme is Mariana’s Room, a multilayered and powerful coming-of-age drama based on a novel by the late Israeli author, Aharon Appelfeld, winner of the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize in 2012, and Mazel Tov, a funny, warm-hearted Argentinian comedy that explores the complicated yet enduring love of a family.

As part of British-Jewish Life on Film, a selection of featured filmmakers will be joining a Q&A, including Barney Pell Scholes and Daisy Abboudi (Primordial Chicken Soup), Jason Solomons (producer, Beshert) and Gary Enkin (writer, Beshert).

The festival’s official closing night will celebrate Bad Shabbos, which scooped the Audience Award at the Tribeca Film Festival following its release last year. As David and his soon-to-be-converted fiancée, Meg, prepare for Shabbat dinner at the home of David’s parents, Ellen and Richard, with Meg’s Catholic parents also invited, nothing can prepare them for just how bad things turn out.

A captioned screening of Bad Shabbos comes to Cineworld Parros Wood on Thu 27 Nov, with an additional screening at HOME on Sun 30 Nov.

The UK Jewish Film Festival runs in Manchester from Thu 20 Nov – Wed 3 Dec. For full listings and to book tickets, click the button below.