Comic actor and veteran director bring latest flicks to Hanukkah film fest

Two overseas guests will attend the Jerusalem Cinematheque’s upcoming Jewish Film Festival over Hanukkah: comedian Michael Rapaport and Oscar-winning director Volker Schlöndorff.

The festival will celebrate its 28th edition from December 5-10 at the arthouse theater that also curates and hosts the annual Jerusalem Film Festival each summer.

Schlöndorff, 87, a German-born director with six decades of filmmaking experience, will open the festival with his latest film, “Visitation,” recently screened at the Cannes Film Festival.

The 2026 film tells Germany’s history through a lakeside home near Berlin, whose residents experience the country’s journey over several generations.

It’s a late-career film for Schlöndorff, who has spent decades at the intersection of cinema, politics and history, with films that explored European history, war and how humans manage all of it.

One of Schlöndorff’s biggest wins was in 1979, when his film “The Tin Drum,” based on Günter Grass’s novel, shared the Palme d’Or with Francis Ford Coppola’s “Apocalypse Now.”

“The Tin Drum” went on to win an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, the first German film to do so since the end of the Second World War.

During Schlöndorff’s period in Hollywood, he became great friends with Billy Wilder, the Austrian-born, Jewish, Academy Award-winning film director who left Germany in 1934, and whose mother, stepfather and grandmother perished in the Holocaust.

Schlöndorff also filmed a documentary film with Wilder in 1988 titled “Billy, How Did You Do It?”, about Wilder’s many achievements.

Schlöndorff will receive an Achievement Award and open the festival on December 5 with a screening of “Visitation.”

An additional screening of the film, followed by a conversation with the director, will take place on Sunday, December 6.

The festival will close with the documentary “Am I Cancelled Yet?” about  Rapaport, the comedian who has become a prominent voice in support of Israel since the October 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attack.

Rapaport, the film’s producer, will appear with the film’s director, Ruth Berdah-Canet, in a post-screening Q&A with the audience.

The film documents Rapaport’s personal journey since October 7, 2023, when the New York City-based comedian reconnected with his Jewish identity, later facing backlash for his outspoken support of Israel.

“Am I Cancelled Yet?” blends Rapaport’s often raunchy comedy with his visits to the sites of the October 7 massacres, as he meets survivors and hostage families, and confronts the personal and professional consequences of speaking out.

Both films explore questions of identity, memory, belonging, and the challenges of navigating a changing reality, said Roni Mahdav-Levin, CEO of the Jerusalem Cinematheque, and Daniella Tourgeman-Glass, the festival’s director.

“Together, they embody the spirit of the festival, which seeks to showcase thought-provoking, artistic cinema and create meaningful conversations between filmmakers and audiences through stories that reflect the many facets of the Jewish experience,” said Mahdav-Levin and Tourgeman-Glass.

The festival’s full artistic program will be available soon on the Jerusalem Cinematheque website. Tickets for the December 5 opening event go on sale November 8, while all other tickets go on sale Sunday, November 22, on the Cinematheque website.