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Jewish films to watch in 2024, from Shoshana to Amy Winehouse biopic Back to Black

There’s a trove of Jewish films coming to cinemas this year

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Marisa Abela stars as Amy Winehouse and Lesley Manville plays her mother in the StudioCanal trailer for Back to Black

Fresh from the success of films such as Oppenheimer and The Zone of Interest at last weekend’s Baftas, 2024 is set to be yet another exciting year for Jewish-related films.

Jewish director Jonathan Glazer’s haunting Shoah story The Zone of Interest picked up three awards as Sunday’s ceremony and the Holocaust continues to feature in a number of forthcoming releases.

Among them is 12 Years a Slave director Steve McQueen’s Occupied City, which takes viewers from the Nazi invasion of Amsterdam in 1940 to the death camps. The director takes us on a poignant journey linking the past to the present through contemporary footage of buildings in which Jews hid or were murdered.

Treasure, meanwhile, pairs Stephen Fry and Lena Dunham and tells the tale of a Holocaust survivor father returning to his Polish homeland with his daughter.

On a lighter note, comedy fans can look forward to Jerry Seinfeld’s debut as a feature film director with Unfrosted, a hilarious telling of the race to create a pastry “that will change the face of breakfast forever”.

Amy Winehouse fans will look forward to April’s release of  Back to Black, a new biopic of the Jewish singer who died so tragically young in 2011. Here is our list of the Jewish-themed films to look out for in the coming year:

Shoshana

Set in 1930s-40s British Mandatory Palestine, this Michael Winterbottom-directed thriller follows British anti-terror police officers Tom Wilkin (Douglas Booth) and Geoffrey Morton (Harry Melling) in their pursuit of  Irgun leader Avraham Stern (Aury Alby).

Released on 23 February

Back to Black

Directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson, this latest Amy Winehouse biopic chronicles the singer’s highs and lows. It charts her meteoric rise to fame from her musical apprenticeship on the Camden jazz scene, taking in her tempestuous relationship with Blake Fielder-Civil – which inspired the song used for the film’s title on the way.

Approved by Winehouse’s family foundation, it stars rising Jewish actress Marisa Abela as Amy, Eddie Marsan as Amy’s father Mitch; and Lesley Manville as her grandmother Cynthia.

Released on 12 April

Treasure

Stephen Fry plays Holocaust survivor Edek, who reluctantly accompanies his music journalist daughter (Lena Dunham) on a tour of his home country of Poland including a visit to Auschwitz – in Treasure, a tragic comedy based on Lily Brett’s book Too Many Men.

Production was still underway when the Hamas attack of October 7 took place.

“We feel it’s the very moment for this film,” director and screenwriter Julia von Heinz told a press conference at the Berlin Film Festival last weekend.

“Does there have to be another film about this subject?

“Yes, there can never be enough, and we’re giving it a new perspective.”

Release date TBC

White Bird: A Wonder Story

Helen Mirren stars as Shoah survivor in White Bird, which is based on the spin-off sequel of Wonder – RJ Palacio’s bestselling children’s novel. It’s an uplifting film about the importance of kindness.

From Finding Neverland director Marc Forster, it follows the struggles of Julian (Bryce Gheisar) whose grandmother (Mirren) helps him by telling her story of being a young Jewish girl in Nazi-occupied France.

Released on 4 October

Lee

Kate Winslet plays American model-turned-Second World War photographer Lee Miller.

The film focuses on Miller’s travels through war-torn Germany and her work alongside the Jewish New York journalist David Scherman (Andy Samberg) for Vogue magazine capturing the horror of the Nazi atrocities, including the concentration camps at Buchenwald and Dachau.

Release date TBC on Sky Cinema

Bonhoeffer

 “There has never been a time in history when we needed to be reminded of the life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer more than today,” Jordan Harmon, the president of Angel Studios, which is behind this movie about the courageous German theologian.

Written and directed by Todd Komarnicki, it follows Bonhoeffer’s brave Nazis during the Second World War, following his early recognition of the dangers of Hitler’s antisemitic propaganda.

Released in November

Unfrosted: The Pop-Tart Story


Set in Michigan in 1963, comedy legend Jerry Seinfeld’s directorial debut follows American cereal rivals Kellogg and Post’s race to create a pastry “that will change the face of breakfast forever”.

Billed as “a tale of ambition, betrayal, sugar, and menacing milkmen” it features a roster of stars including Amy Schumer, Hugh Grant, James Marsden, Daniel Levy and Melissa McCarthy.

Released on 3 May


Between the Temples

Cantor Ben Gottlieb is a depressed 40-something unable to face singing at his New York shul since the death of his alcoholic wife a year earlier in indie director Nathan Silver’s offbeat rom-com.

Starring Jason Schwartzman, Carol Kane (Taxi) and Caroline Aaron (The Marvelous Mrs Maisel).

Release date TBC

Bau, Artist at War

Artist and cartoonist Joseph Bau was the founder of Israel’s animation industry.

Bau, Artist at War is an espionage tale based on the true love story of Joseph and Rebecca Bau, whose secret marriage took place in the Plaszow concentration camp during the Second World War.

In Sean McNamara’s film, Bau – played by Emile Hirsch is called years later to be a key witness in the trial of the Nazi officer who tortured him and murdered his father.

Release date TBC

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