Trailer
Year
2007
Length
30/52 min
Directors
David Bernet and Robert Ralston
Jew by Choice
They have chosen to leave everything behind them. Their family, friends, language, culture, and old faith. Three Germans go to Israel and convert to the Jewish faith: the former judge Yael Jenner, the nurse Secharjah Schwarzkopf, and Nico B., a young man finding his way between career and calling.
Being Jewish entails much more than a profession of faith. It means more than being – normally – the child of a Jewish mother and a member of the Jewish people. It is more than the observance of religious law and a life in accordance with the Jewish calendar. Jewishness can only be comprehended in its totality: as a culture, a tradition and a religion. In the current political situation, and with its history of thousands of years of pogroms and persecution, Jewish identity seems to be characterised by one thing in particular: a common fate.
How will the converts make a home for themselves within this culture? How will they ever find their place in a religious community that was not simply waiting to take them into the fold, and whose past can never be their own? How will they settle in a state that has not known peace since its founding in 1948, and in which attacks and military actions are part of everyday life?
“Jew by Choice” is an extraordinary document of intimate moments, conversations and observations. The film depicts a difficult and perhaps never-ending transition between worlds.
Written and directed by
David Bernet
Robert Ralston
Cinematography
Robert Ralston
Editing
Sarah J. Levine
Sound
David Bernet
Music
Jan Tillmann Schade
Orna Ralston
Producer
Eva Rink
Yael Ben Shloosh
Executive Producer
Christian Beetz
Idan Regev
Commissioning Editors
Andrea Ernst (WDR)
Yosi Mulla (Channel 2 Israel)
Sales & distribution
- Press kit
- Press photos
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„Just in diesem Moment überraschen uns die aus dem Theaterbereich stammenden jungen Regisseure Hans Block und Moritz Riesewieck mit einem erstaunlichen Dokumentarfilm, der seit Monaten Publikum und Kritik auf den wichtigsten Festivals der Welt elektrisiert. Völlig zu Recht: Es ist, als würden einem die Scheuklappen weggerissen, als sähe man das, was sich seit Jahren direkt vor unseren Augen abspielt, zum ersten Mal unverschleiert... eine fesselnde ,Doku noir' mit höchstem Anspruch...Dieser Film müsste an allen Schulen gezeigt werden.“
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
17.05.2018
