La Maison De Nina
Dir: Richar Dembo
March 5, 2008, 7:30 p.m., Cinearts
France, 2004, 114 minutes, Portugese, German with subtitles

East Bay Premiere! Featuring a brilliant performance from Agnès Jaoui, this feature film captures the emotionally charged atmosphere both during and after the Liberation of France when Jewish children (some who had been in hiding and others who had been deported to camps) were sent to half-way houses, waiting to see if their parents were among the survivors of WWII. Among the thousands who found refuge in such homes was Elie Wiesel. The film focuses on one country residence just outside Paris, where the tireless Nina works hard to comfort the children in her care as they learn to live again.

Bad Faith
Dir: Roschdy Zem
March 3, 2008, 4:30 p.m., Cinearts
France-Belgium, 2006, 88 minutes, French, Arabic with subtitles

This touching romantic comedy begins with two French thirty-somethings-Ismaël and Clara-who are very much in love. The happy couple is able to ignore the differences of their religious backgrounds until Clara becomes pregnant. Then, Ismael wonders whether his Muslim family will accept the new circumstances, and Clara learns that her Jewish parents define an interfaith marriage as one between Sephardic and Ashkenazi Jews. Bad Faith tenderly captures what happens when the outside world intrudes upon true love. Adult content.

The Rape of Europa
March 4, 2008, 10:00 a.m., Contra Costa JCC
USA, 2006, 117 minutes, English, Russian, German, Polish and French

In a journey through seven countries, this documentary takes the audience into the violent whirlwind of fanaticism, greed, and warfare that threatened to wipe out Europe’s artistic heritage. But young art professionals as well as ordinary heroes, from truck drivers to department store clerks, fought back with an extraordinary effort to safeguard, rescue and return the millions of lost, hidden and stolen treasures that were systematically stolen by the Nazis during the reign of the Third Reich.