Parting thoughts from Jan Lisa Huttner

Sometimes a filmmaker pulls a few arrows from the quiver of her own life, takes aim, and succeeds in hitting some folks in her audience right in their sweet spots. This is exactly what happened to me when I went to see Gillian Robespierre’s new film Landline.

Set in a close-knit community in Jerusalem, the new Israeli film The Women's Balcony is a parable about what often occurs after bad things happen to good people.

Rama Burshtein’s sophomore film The Wedding Plan opens with one of the best scenes I have seen on screen all year -- and then goes relentlessly downhill.

Everything about Norman is first rate. The casting is superb, beginning with Richard Gere as Norman and Lior Ashkenazi as Micha Eshel.

Spring brings two new documentary films from Israel to Chicago. One I loved. The other? No so much.

On Sunday (February 12), you can choose between two wonderful films or see both!

Now in its eleventh year, the Chicago Festival of Israeli Cinema (CFIC) has nabbed its greatest programming coup to date.

One could dismiss Denial as “just another film about the Holocaust” (as some of my fellow film critics have already done), but I sincerely believe that would totally miss the point.

If you have seen already Labyrinth of Lies, then you are obligated to see The People vs Fritz Bauer as a corrective. If you have not yet seen Labyrinth of Lies, then don’t. See The People vs Fritz Bauer, and you will be glad that you did.