French comedy to open Jewish Film Festival

The Specials tells the story of a Muslim and a Jew who work together to care for young adults with autism, and it is based on the true-life story.

A MUSLIM and a Jew work together to care for young adults with autism in ‘The Specials.’ (photo credit: CAROLE BETHUEL)
A MUSLIM and a Jew work together to care for young adults with autism in ‘The Specials.’
(photo credit: CAROLE BETHUEL)
The Specials, the latest film by the two masters of French comedy, Eric Toledano and Olivier Nakache (Intouchables, C’est La Vie), which has received rave reviews around the world, will be the opening film of the 21st Jewish Film Festival at the Jerusalem Cinematheque, which will run this year from December 19 to 26.
The Specials tells the story of a Muslim and a Jew who work together to care for young adults with autism, and it is based on the true-life story of professionals who cared for a family member of one of the directors. It stars Vincent Cassel and Reda Kateb, and will be opening in Israel following the festival.
The festival will also include the latest movie by Terrence Malick, A Hidden Life, the story of Franz Jägerstätter, an Austrian conscientious objector, who refuses to fight for the Nazis in World War II.
There will be a documentary about Lauren Bacall, that Jewish screen goddess who wed Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall: A View from Heaven, as well a screening of one of her classic films, To Have and Have Not.
Other documentaries in the festival will focus on such diverse figures as Freud, Osip Mandelstam, philosopher Isaiah Berlin, Shimon Peres and filmmaker Claude Lanzmann. Other films will look at Jewish musicians and include a film about the legendary New York jazz club the Blue Note.