Starting the dialogue

Quentin Tarantino’s bombastic World War II revenge drama Inglourious Basterds may have grabbed headlines last summer, but this month the Baton Rouge Jewish Film Festival returns to the Manship Theatre for its fourth season with a slate of award-winning films more thought-provoking and culturally conscious than the Brad Pitt blockbuster.

For Baton Rougeans who decry our lack of options for independent cinema in the city, this annual festival continues to be one of the best opportunities to see art house films in the area. The Jewish Film Festival has always been adept at rendering a response from its audiences and also initiating a dialogue on a range of social issues.

To that end, the festival opens this year with The Clown and the Fuhrer, the dramatic retelling of an infamous encounter between Adolf Hitler and Charlie Rivel, Spain’s most lauded clown performer. While appearing in Berlin, Rivel and his partner were stopped by Gestapo and invited to perform for the Fuhrer’s birthday, only later to find Hitler wanted more from them than entertainment.

The Case for Israel: Democracy’s Outpost is another selection that should get people talking. Filmmaker Gloria Greenfield—who will speak at the festival—directs attorney Alan Dershowitz as he leads a point-by-point defense of Israel’s pursuit of sovereign statehood.

Among the other films showing will be the lost-child dramedy Noodle, about a Jewish flight attendant trying to reunite a young Chinese boy with his mother, and the coming-of-age tale The Little Traitor, an award-winning film about an unlikely friendship between a precocious and headstrong Israeli boy and a British soldier played by Alfred Molina.

The 2009 Academy Award-winning Live Action Short Film Toyland will accompany a screening of the WWII blockade and rescue mission documentary Waves of Freedom, Sunday, Jan. 24, at 3:30 p.m, as will speaker Paul Kaye, the famous ship’s captain.

The Baton Rouge Jewish Film Festival opens Jan. 20 at the Manship Theatre at the Shaw Center for the Arts. Reserved seats are $8.50. For a complete schedule and more details visit brjff.com.