UK Premiere: Simon Konianski

Dir. Micha Wald I Belgium, France, Canada I 2008 I 97 mins I French with English subtitles

Simon Konianski knows all about the generation gap. Forced – at age 35 – to move back temporarily to live with his ailing father, Ernest, the two soon become like a French Steptoe & Son, bickering over every aspect of Simon’s under-achieving life: failed relationship, failed career, child out of wedlock with an exotic dancer. But soon Ernest passes away, and Simon, faithfully honouring his last request to be buried in the town of his birth, sets off on a comic family trip to deepest Ukraine in the company of his outrageously eccentric Aunt and Uncle, his six year old son, and a whole host of unwelcome ghosts from the past, including Ernest himself.

By turns funny, crass, surreal and shocking, Belgian director Micha Wald has created a Jewish road movie with a difference – a modern variation on the classic generational comedy theme, emphasising and playing with differences in Jewish attitudes to the past and expectations for the future.

Screening with:

UK Premiere: Grandmothers (Avós)
Dir. Michael Wahrmann I Brazil I 2009 I 11 mins

Leo celebrates his 10th birthday. From one grandmother, he receives socks. From the other, underwear. From his grandfather, Leo gets an old Super-8 camera and with it he tells us of his attempts to change his gifts.

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