The festival continues this weekend with screenings October 26 through 28 at the Wilmette, 1122 Central, Wilmette. Some highlights follow, all in subtitled Hebrew and other languages. For more information call 847-675-3378 or visit chicagofestivalofisraelicinema.org.
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Aviva My Love (107 min.) picked up six awards at Israel’s Oscars, including best picture, best actress (Assi Levy), and best director (Shemi Zarhin, who also did Bonjour Monsieur Shlomi). Levy stars as a part-time cook who longs to be a writer, and Sasson Gabai, in a surprisingly sympathetic performance, is the blocked Tel Aviv author who first mentors her and then publishes her work as his own (Sat 10/27, 7:30 PM). In Itai Lev’s Little Heroes (73 min.) a young judo champ helps a Russian girl and her developmentally disabled brother locate the remote site of a car accident, but the kids have to dodge hostile kibbutznik brats and shells from nearby maneuvers of the Israeli Defense Forces. The movie offers family-friendly messages and a charming young cast, but for a children’s adventure it has a disturbingly high violence quotient (Sun 10/28, 3:30 PM).
