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Movies: Best "jewish life" Movies

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39 movies found (page 1/2):

Ben-Hur(1959)

3h 42min | Action, Drama, History
3.9/5 (with 1,144 votes)

In 25 AD,Judah Ben-Hur, a Jew in ancient Judea, opposes the occupying Roman empire. Falsely accused by a Roman childhood friend-turned-overlord of trying to kill the Roman governor, he is put into slavery and his mother and sister are taken away as prisoners. Three years later and freed by a grateful Roman galley commander whom he has rescued from drowning, he becomes an expert charioteer for Rome, all the while plotting to return to Judea, find and rescue his family, and avenge himself on his former friend. All the while, the form and work of Jesus move in the background of his life...

Directed by William Wyler - With Charlton Heston, Jack Hawkins, Haya Harareet, Stephen Boyd, Hugh Griffith, Martha Scott, ...
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The Believer(2001)

R
| 1h 38min | Drama
3.4/5 (with 277 votes)

A hardcore US racist skinhead who, because of his intelligence, leads a gang dedicated to fighting the enemy: the supposed American-Jewish conspiracy for domination. However, he's hiding a secret: he's Jewish-born, a brilliant scholar whose questioning of the tenets of his faith has left him angry and confused, turning against those who he thinks have a tragic history of their own making.

Directed by Henry Bean - With Ryan Gosling, Billy Zane, Theresa Russell, Summer Phoenix, Garret Dillahunt, Elizabeth Reaser, ...

Prime(2005)

PG-13
| 1h 42min | Comedy, Drama, Romance / Love
3.0/5 (with 363 votes)

A career driven professional from Manhattan is wooed by a young painter, who also happens to be the son of her psychoanalyst.

Directed by Ben Younger - With Uma Thurman, Meryl Streep, Bryan Greenberg, Jon Abrahams, Annie Parisse, Ato Essandoh, ...
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Shiva Baby(2021)

NR
| 1h 18min | Comedy, Drama
3.6/5 (with 215 votes)

College student Danielle must cover her tracks when she unexpectedly runs into her sugar daddy at a shiva - with her parents, ex-girlfriend and family friends also in attendance.

Directed by Emma Seligman

Jakob the Liar(1999)

PG-13
| 2h | Comedy, Drama, History
3.3/5 (with 150 votes)

In 1944 Poland, a Jewish shop keeper named Jakob is summoned to ghetto headquarters after being caught out after curfew. While waiting for the German Kommondant, Jakob overhears a German radio broadcast about Russian troop movements. Returned to the ghetto, the shopkeeper shares his information with a friend and then rumors fly that there is a secret radio within the ghetto.

Directed by Peter Kassovitz, Marek Brodzki - With Robin Williams, Alan Arkin, Liev Schreiber, Hannah Taylor-Gordon, Bob Balaban, Michael Jeter, ...
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Sunshine(1999)

R
| 3h 1min | Drama, History
3.3/5 (with 56 votes)

The story of a Jewish family living in Hungary—through three generations—rising from humble beginnings to positions of wealth and power in the crumbling Austro-Hungarian Empire. The patriarch becomes a prominent judge but is torn when his government sanctions anti-Jewish persecutions. His son converts to Christianity to advance his career as a champion fencer and Olympic hero, but is caught up in the Holocaust. Finally, the grandson, after surviving war, revolution, loss and betrayal, realizes that his ultimate allegiance must be to himself and his heritage.

Directed by István Szabó - With Ralph Fiennes, Rosemary Harris, Rachel Weisz, Jennifer Ehle, Deborah Kara Unger, Molly Parker, ...
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The Jazz Singer(1927)

NR
| 1h 29min | Drama, Music
3.2/5 (with 81 votes)

A young Jewish man is torn between tradition and individuality when his old-fashioned family objects to his career as a jazz singer. This is the first full length feature film to use synchronized sound, and is the original film musical.

Directed by Alan Crosland - With Warner Oland, Al Jolson, May McAvoy, Richard Tucker, Yossele Rosenblatt, Richard Tucker, ...
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Train of Life(1998)

1h 43min | Drama, Comedy, War
3.7/5 (with 123 votes)

In 1941, the inhabitants of a small Jewish village in Central Europe organize a fake deportation train so that they can escape the Nazis and flee to Palestine.

Directed by Radu Mihăileanu - With Rufus, Michel Muller, Agathe de La Fontaine, Gad Elmaleh, Bruno Abraham-Kremer, Clément Harari, ...

Homicide(1991)

1h 42min | Drama, Crime
3.1/5 (with 52 votes)

A Jewish homicide detective investigates a seemingly minor murder and falls in with a Zionist group as a result.

Directed by David Mamet - With Joe Mantegna, William H. Macy, Rebecca Pidgeon, Ving Rhames, Colin Stinton, Natalia Nogulich, ...

Indignation(2016)

R
| 1h 50min | Drama, Romance / Love
3.2/5 (with 120 votes)

In 1951, Marcus Messner, a working-class Jewish student from New Jersey, attends a small Ohio college, where he struggles with anti-Semitism, sexual repression, and the ongoing Korean War.

Directed by James Schamus - With Logan Lerman, Sarah Gadon, Tracy Letts, Linda Emond, Danny Burstein, Ben Rosenfield, ...
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Dummy(2002)

R
| 1h 31min | Comedy, Drama, Romance / Love
3.0/5 (with 35 votes)

An ex-office worker becomes a ventriloquist, leading to a date with his unemployment counselor; but his quirky family and a gauche female friend may thwart his new career and love life.

Directed by Greg Pritikin - With Adrien Brody, Milla Jovovich, Illeana Douglas, Vera Farmiga, Jared Harris, Jessica Walter, ...
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As They Made Us(2022)

1h 30min | Drama, Romance / Love, Comedy
2.7/5 (with 8 votes)

Abigail, a divorced mother of two, is struggling to balance the dynamics within her dysfunctional family as she attempts to cultivate new love.

Directed by Mayim Bialik - With Candice Bergen, Dustin Hoffman, Simon Helberg, Dianna Agron, Justin Chu Cary, Charlie Weber, ...
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Liberty Heights(1999)

R
| 2h 7min | Drama
3.4/5 (with 27 votes)

This semi-autobiographical film by Barry Levinson follows various members of the Kurtzman clan, a Jewish family living in suburban Baltimore during the 1950s. As teenaged Ben completes high school, he falls for Sylvia, a black classmate, creating inevitable tensions. Meanwhile, Ben's brother, Van, attends college and becomes smitten with a mysterious woman while their father tries to maintain his burlesque business.

Directed by Barry Levinson - With Adrien Brody, Ben Foster, Orlando Jones, Joe Mantegna, Justin Chambers, Anthony Anderson, ...
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Welcome in Vienna(1986)

2h 7min | Drama, War
3.2/5 (with 3 votes)

In the conclusion of Axel Corti's trilogy (following God Does Not Believe In Us Anymore and Santa Fe) Freddy, a Viennese Jew who emigrated to New York after Hitler's invasion, and Adler, a left-wing intellectual originally from Berlin, return to Austria in 1944 as soldiers in the U.S. Army. Freddy falls in love with the daughter of a Nazi, and Adler attempts to go over to the Communist Zone. But with the advent of the Cold War and continuing anti-semitism, the idealism of both characters is shattered as they find themselves surrounded by cynicism, opportunism, and universal self-deception. This acclaimed, brilliant work is one of the great films of all time.

Directed by Axel Corti - With Kurt Sowinetz, Nicolas Brieger, Gabriel Barylli, Claudia Messner, Karlheinz Hackl, Liliana Nelska, ...

Minyan(2020)

1h 58min | Drama
2.4/5 (with 3 votes)

In a rapidly changing New York of the 1980s, a Russian Jewish teenager wrestles with his identity, faith, and sexuality, all of which seem irreconcilable until he befriends two closeted men in his grandfather's senior housing complex.

Directed by Eric Steel - With Samuel H. Levine, Ron Rifkin, Christopher McCann, Mark Margolis, Brooke Bloom

Left Luggage(1998)

1h 40min | Drama
3.3/5 (with 12 votes)

While escaping from Nazis during the WWII, a Jewish man dug suitcases full of things dear to his heart in the ground two. The war deprived him of his family, and afterwards he endlessly turns over the soil of Antwerp to find the suitcases, which makes him look obsessed. He keeps checking old maps and keeps digging, trying to find, in fact, those he lost. His daughter Chaya is a beautiful modern girl looking for a part-time job. She finds a place as a nanny in the strictly observant Chassidic family with many children, although her secular manners clearly fly in the face of many commandments. One of the reasons she is accepted is that mother of the family is absolutely overburdened by the household, so she stays despite the resistance of the father, normally - an indisputable authority in the family. She develops a special bond with the youngest of the boys, four-year old Simcha, so far incapable of speaking.

Directed by Jeroen Krabbé - With Laura Fraser, Isabella Rossellini, Jeroen Krabbé, Chaim Topol, David Bradley, Marianne Sägebrecht, ...

Only Human(2004)

1h 33min | Drama, Comedy, Romance / Love
3.2/5 (with 12 votes)

Leni takes Rafi to meet her family in Madrid. Leni's family is Jewish - mother, father, older sister and daughter, brother, and grandfather. Rafi is Palestinian, in Spain since age 12. Before her father returns from work, Leni reveals Rafi's origins. He accidentally drops a block of frozen soup out the flat window, probably killing a passerby. Leni initiates a cover-up and Rafi figures out the body is probably Leni's father. The body disappears and without telling the rest of the family what they know, Leni and Rafi organize a search for dad. Mom is sure he's having an affair. Leni's belly-dancing sister kisses Rafi. Her brother grabs a rifle to shoot the Arab. Can anything be put right?

Directed by Teresa de Pelegrí, Dominic Harari - With Guillermo Toledo, Fernando Ramallo, Norma Aleandro, Marián Aguilera, María Botto, Mario Martín, ...

Go for Zucker(2004)

2h 16min | Comedy
3.2/5 (with 21 votes)

Germany director Dani Levy filmed this comedy about Jewish life in today’s Germany along side the familiar east-west conflict. With it great success this film is a joyful comedy of humor and knowledge.

Directed by Dani Levy - With Henry Hübchen, Hannelore Elsner, Udo Samel, Gołda Tencer, Sebastian Blomberg, Rolf Hoppe, ...

The Chosen One(2022)

Horror, Drama

After impulsively shaving off his beard and sidelocks, a young Hasidic man experiences a nightmarish transformation that leads him right back to where he started. Over the course of one painful night, Efrayim Eisenstein will come to realize that it’s much easier to shave your beard than to shed who you are.

50 Children: The Rescue Mission of Mr. and Mrs. Kraus(2013)

1h 2min | Documentary
3.0/5 (with 4 votes)

In the spring of 1939, Gilbert and Eleanor Kraus embarked on a risky and unlikely mission. Traveling into the heart of Nazi Germany, they rescued 50 Jewish children from Vienna and brought them to the United States.

Directed by Steven Pressman - With Mamie Gummer

God Does Not Believe in Us Anymore(1982)

1h 50min | Drama, War
3.6/5 (with 2 votes)

After his father is murdered by the Nazis in 1938, a young Viennese Jew named Ferry Tobler flees to Prague, where he joins forces with another expatriate and a sympathetic Czech relief worker. Together with other Jewish refugees, the three make their way to Paris, and, after spending time in a French prison camp, eventually escape to Marseille, from where they hope to sail to a safe port.

Directed by Axel Corti - With Armin Mueller-Stahl, Fritz Muliar, Johannes Silberschneider, Buddy Elias, Georg Marischka

The Star of David(2016)

15min | Drama, Kids & Family, Thriller, Mystery
5.0/5 (with 1 vote)

In a small blue-collar town, a white boy runs for class president to stop the Mexicans from taking over. This innocuous moment forces racial tensions to the breaking point and sends families into turmoil.

The Israeli Boys(2020)

1h 41min | Drama
2.0/5 (with 3 votes)

Secrets, lies, surprises and more are explored in this rich selection of gay short films from Israel. The 6 short films are: Three (2018); A Trip to the Desert (2016); Rubber Dolphin (2018); Stav (2018); After His Death (2017); Leave of Absence (2016).

Goyta(2007)

16min | Drama

The lives of a Hassidic young man (Yoyli) and a Polish young woman (Mariola) intersect when they find themselves secluded in a car after he offers her a ride home. This, after Yoyli and his mother picked her up from a street corner in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, where Polish, immigrant women wait to be taken to Hassidic homes to help with the cleaning of their house. In the movie they negotiate the labor at $8 an hour. After scrubbing and scouring for a bit, and after observing a world that is completely foreign to her, Mariola succumbs to the toxic fumes of the cleaning agents and falls and faints. After regaining consciousness, she leaves the house in an angry huff. At the prodding of his sister and father, Yoyli goes out to find her and offer her a ride. She accepts not realizing the differences of their worlds that would place the two young people in a tense and heated situation that is never fully resolved.

Sorrows of Sarah(1913)

20min | Drama
2.5/5 (with 2 votes)

This film captures a stage production at Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, accompanied by the choir of Moscow Synagogue. Brothers Isaak and Borukh are both in love with Sarra, but Sarra chooses Isaac and they got married. However, Sarra could not conceive for ten years, and their Rabbi tells them that according to Jewish law, they must divorce. Isaak's parents push him to sign the divorce paper, then their Rabbi drops the divorce paper to Sarra's feet. She tells Isaac about her grief, and Isaak commits suicide. Soon after-wards, Sore realizes that she is pregnant, but she is now single.

Bacon & God's Wrath(2015)

8min | Animation, Documentary
3.2/5 (with 2 votes)

A 90-year-old Jewish woman reflects on her life experiences as she prepares to try bacon for the first time.

Directed by Sol Friedman

Porcelain Unicorn(2010)

3min | Drama, Kids & Family, War
3.3/5 (with 1 vote)

In 1940s Germany, a young boy stumbles upon a Jewish girl in hiding.

The Actress(1988)

1h 27min | Drama

The year 1933: Successful actress Maria Rheine is in love with her Jewish colleague Mark Löwenthal. When the Nazis implement the racist Nuremberg Laws, their relationship is severely endangered. Defiant Maria decides to stay together with Mark and ends her promising career: She assumes a Jewish identity and continues to work under the name Manja Löwenthal. She and Mark perform at the Jewish Theatre in Berlin, until they become victims of an intrigue: Their colleague Judith, who has a crush on Mark, denounces them to the secret police.

Directed by Siegfried Kühn - With Corinna Harfouch, André Hennicke, Michael Gwisdek, Blanche Kommerell, Martin Brandt, Christian Steyer, ...

Landauer: Gefeiert, verbannt, vergessen(2014)

29min | Documentary

Documentary about Kurt Landauer, the long-time Jewish president of FC Bayern München, who led the club to its first German championship, was persecuted and forced out of office by the Nazis, and rebuilt the club after the war.

A Jumpin' Night in the Garden of Eden(1987)

1h 20min | Documentary, Music

A Jumpin' Night in the Garden of Eden was the first film to document the klezmer revival, tracing the efforts of two founding groups, Kapelye and Boston's Klezmer Conservatory Band, to recover the lost history of klezmer music. For nearly a millennium, this vigorous and soulful music was part of the celebration of Jewish life in Eastern Europe. In the early decades of this century, the music took root in America. Klezmer musicians learned hundreds of tunes by ear and their ears were open to Gypsy, Ukrainian and Greek melodies of the old world, as well as to the new sounds of American jazz. Music born in Eastern Europe lived on in the imaginations of composers for New York's Yiddish theater, men whose tunes entered the mainstream through such unlikely adapters as the Andrew Sisters. Eventually Klezmer went underground as its audience assimilated into mainstream American culture.

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