The 18th annual JFilm, formerly known as the Pittsburgh Jewish-Israeli Film Festival, continues. Tickets are $9 for adults, $8 for seniors and students, and $5 for kids under 18. For tickets and more information, call 412-992-5203 or visit www.JfilmPgh.org. Below are selected features screening through Sun., April 10.
THE HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGER. The HR manager from a Jerusalem bakery accompanies the corpse of a worker back to her small village in Romania. Eran Riklis' (The Lemon Tree) winning dramedy combines a quirky road trip through this former Cold War country with bittersweet ruminations on family, country and opportunity. In Hebrew and Romanian, with subtitles. 8:45 p.m. Sat., April 2 (SouthSide Works), and 7 p.m. Tue., April 5 (Carmike 15, Greensburg)
JEWS AND BASEBALL: AN AMERICAN LOVE STORY. Peter Miller's documentary describes how immigrant Jews used the national pastime to assimilate. It wasn't just that baseball dovetailed with aspects of the Jewish character (hope mixed with fatalism); the sport also had Jewish stars, around whom fans of all faiths coalesced. The film pays tributes to the greats (Greenberg, Rosen, Koufax), as well as lesser-known players and Jewish baseball fandom's sacred ground, Ebbets Field. 1 p.m. Sun., April 3. SouthSide Works
PRECIOUS LIFE. Director Shlomi Eldar spends 18 months with a young Palestinian family as their severely ill baby fights for life in an Israeli hospital, at the same time tensions flare between Gaza and Israel. Eldar's provocative documentary reveals both the bridges and chasms in Israeli-Palestinian relations, as well examining the incongruities of human nature as participants cycle through fear, anger, kindness and gratitude. In Hebrew and Arabic, with subtitles. 4 pm. Sun., April 3. SouthSide Works
THE NAMES OF LOVE. Identity gets sent up, celebrated and re-purposed in Michel Leclerc's lively rom-com that tracks the relationship of two Parisian "half-breeds," one part Jewish, the other part Algerian. The nerdish Arthur and the free-spirited Bahia find common ground in the historical oppression of their respective families, as well as their quixotic support of left-wing politics. In French, with subtitles. 8:45 p.m. Sat., April 9. SouthSide Works
THE ROUND UP. In the summer of 1942, the French government cooperated with the Nazis by rounding up more than 10,000 Parisian Jews. Roselyne Bosch's drama features an ensemble cast that includes a neighborhood of Jewish families, sympathetic Parisians (including Jean Reno as a doctor), Vichy officials and Hitler. While her attempt to show the full picture is admirable, the scope detracts somewhat from our emotional engagement. In French, German and Yiddish, with subtitles. 1 p.m. Sun., April 10. SouthSide Works
