Festival favorite, Dough, makes its world premiere at the 2015 Atlanta Jewish Film Festival. Thanks to the festival’s encore screenings the film will be available once again on Wednesday, February 18th at 8:50 PM at UA Tara.
In addition to the highly acclaimed film, Dough, the 2015 AJFF will close with double screenings of another fan favorite, Theodore Bikel: In the Shows of Sholom Aleichem, this Thursday, February 19th. Closing Night will be held in the Rich Auditorium at the Woodruff Arts Centre for the second year in a row. A dessert reception presented by Metrotainment Bakery will accompany both Closing Night screenings. There is a 6:50 PM screening with the post-film dessert reception immediately following the screening. There is a 9:15 PM screening with a pre-film dessert reception immediately preceding the screening. The cost is $18 to attend and tickets are available on ajff.org.
Dough:
Dough is a warmhearted and gently humorous story about overcoming prejudice and finding redemption in unexpected places. Widowed and down on his luck, Nat Dayan (Pryce) is desperate to save his bakery in London’s East End. His customers are dying off, his sons have no interest in keeping afloat the family business, and hostile businessman Sam Cotton (London Film Critics’ Circle winner Philip Davis) has his own greedy plans for the property. In a pinch, Nat reluctantly enlists the help of teenager Ayyash (Jerome Holder), a refugee from Darfur. The Muslim boy assists with the bakery’s daily chores, while selling cannabis on the side to help his struggling mother make ends meet. When Ayyash one day accidently drops his stash into the dough, the challah starts flying off the shelf, and an unlikely friendship forms between the old Jewish baker and his young Muslim apprentice. The cast of characters is rounded out by Tribeca Film Festival Best Actor-winner Ian Hart as a tough marijuana dealer and Oscar-nominee Pauline Collins as the landlady with a none-too-subtle crush on Nat.
Theodore Bikel: In the Shows of Sholom Aleichem:
Immortalizing two beloved cultural icons in an enchanting musical biography, this film is a joyous extravaganza of Jewish storytelling and song. A pioneer of modern Jewish literature, Russian author Sholom Aleichem created a litany of characters and stories that have brilliantly kept Yiddish culture alive. The foremost interpreter of this work is Theodore Bikel, a consummate performer whose luminous career spans countless screen and stage roles. Now a nonagenarian and charismatic as ever, Bikel breathes new life into these late 19th and early 20th century tales of Eastern European shtetl life. With humor and pathos, he animates the role of Aleichem’s Tevye the Milkman, reenacts other classic yarns of Yiddishkeit, and reminisces on his own extraordinary life story.