Word: chur
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Opening night of the film festival, co-sponsored by the Consulate General of Israel to New England, features an Israeli film directed by Shmuel Hasfari entitled "Sh'chur," (1994, 100 min.) This winner of the 1995 Berlin Film Festival Special lury Award and six Israeli academy awards is a moving story about a Moraccan-Jewish family and their struggle to maintain tradition as modernity encroaches. We are shown mostly flashbacks of the 1970s-era childhood of Rachel (Hana Azoulay Hasfari) who has grown up to become a successful television producer. It is her story we follow, her struggle to escape...
...with its unmasking of this particular family. Through the eyes of Rachel, the only ostensibly "normal" individual in the film, we see are shown a group of tragic individuals--a blind, abusive father, a deadbeat son--in addition to the superstitious mother and disturbed older daughter already mentioned. Sh'chur is a harsh criticism of immigrant culture and the tragic characters we are shown help us empathize with Rachel's desire to escape...
...chur is a groundbreaking film. The director is clearly blaming the immigrants themselves, the Sephardic Moraccans, for their problems integrating into Israeli society. Old world superstitions thrive among this self-segregated community in modern Israel. Dov Halfon, the editor-in-chief of Ha'aretz, Tel Aviv's daily newspaper, writes that Sh'chur "has broken one of the central tenets of traditional Sephardic thought: Always blame the Ashkenazis." Thus, the film is at the center of heated debate in today's Israel...
Actress Ronit Alkabetz will be present at the screening of Sh'chur at the Museum of Fine Arts, 465 Huntington Avenue in Boston on Thursday, November 9. Sh'chur will be preceded by "Les Affinites Recouvrees," directed by Cynthia Beth Rubip. (USA, 1994, 3 min.) This mini-film probes the Moraccon Jewish culture and the influences of Islam on the development and strength of this culture. The artist is an Ashkenasi Jew, and this piece is the culmination of her research on a culture of "others" which is oftentimes neglected. Shmuel Hasfari, the director of Sh'chur and Cynthia Beth...
...fill the Roman Catholic hierarchy with clerics who insist on strict obedience to church teachings. In recent months, however, many of the faithful have been alarmed by the Pope's determination to override the sentiments of local clergy in order to get his way. Angry liberals in Vienna and Chur, Switzerland, have even resorted to blocking cathedral entrances to protest the consecration of new, archconservative bishops...