From left, Jamie Elman and Eli Batalion in Sweden during "Swedishkayt: YidLife Crisis in Stockholm," which makes its world premiere at the upcoming 28th Miami Jewish Film Festival.
South Florida film fans have the opportunity to go on an informative, humorous and entertaining journey with a Canadian comedic duo while learning about Sweden's little known Jewish culture through a documentary.
"Swedishkayt: YidLife Crisis in Stockholm," directed by Eli Batalion and Jamie Elman – the creators and stars of of the Canadian comedy web series "YidLife Crisis" – makes its world premiere at the upcoming 28th Miami Jewish Film Festival. It screens at 8 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 18 at the Hub at Temple Beth Am in Pinecrest and at 4 p.m. on Sunday, Jan. 19 at the Michael-Ann Russell Jewish Community Center in North Miami Beach.
The festival opens on Thursday, Jan. 9 at the Miami Beach Bandshell.
(To get the full scoop on the festival, see the miamiartzine.com overview story.)
In the film, Batalion and Elman, who arrived in Stockholm for a live comedy show, learn eye-opening facts through interviews and site visits about Sweden's Jewish community that spans 250 years. Included in the film is information about the earliest Jewish immigrants in the country and how Yiddish became a protected government-recognized minority language in Sweden.
When asked about their inspiration for making the film in an interview for miamiartzine.com with the directors, Batalion said:"We've been touring the world for the last 10 years exploring Yiddish culture, and we got an invite from Sweden to do a talk and a presentation, and only through that invite and more conversations that we realized that Yiddish is a protected minority language there, which can't really be said of anywhere else in the world."
From left, From left,Jamie Elman and Eli Batalion pose in Sweden during "Swedishkayt: YidLife Crisis in Stockholm," which makes its world premiere at the upcoming 28th Miami Jewish Film Festival.
He said he immediately knew that this well-kept secret should be shared with the world.
"It's not the first place we would've guessed would have that status for the Yiddish language," Batalion continued. "It was a very fascinating premise. . . "
Both Batalion and Elman shared their highlights from their experience making the film, including their visit to the Great Synagogue of Stockholm.
"In the synagogue, there were two bar mitzvahs going on in the same Saturday morning, and there was a diverse crowd of Jews and non-Jews," said Elman.
The pair were fascinated to see mixed families of Jews and non-Jews, different races of Jews and Jews from throughout Europe who had immigrated.
"It was an interesting thing for us to come into and see this kind of life and Jewish celebration in Stockholm."
Elman said that another highlight when they starting shooting the film was when they met a young community of Jews.
"(They) are basically spearheading the community socially and politically there in all sorts of ways. "They are all just really bright, well-raised, knowledgeable people," Elman said."They are an accomplished young group of Jews who are doing alot of interesting things in the Jewish community and in Swedish society."
Batalion says another highlight was meeting linguist Susanne Sznajderman-Rytz, who worked to convince the Swedish government to protect the language.
". . . Being able to share directly her story for the first time, even though we connected with her a year earlier, is definitely a highlight and you get to see that moment in the film," Batalion said.
Batalion and Elman are excited to premiere the film in Miami at the Miami Jewish Film Festival.
Swedish Academic and TV host Natalie Block with Eli Batalion and Jamie Elman during "Swedishkayt: YidLife Crisis in Stockholm," which makes its world premiere at the upcoming 28th Miami Jewish Film Festival.
Batalion said: "When we thought about how this film can really go out and start a journey in the world, we set our eyes on Miami for the reason that the Miami Jewish Film Festival is seemingly the largest Jewish film festival in the world."
In 2018, the duo had their documentary "Chewdaism: A Taste of Jewish Montreal" so they were familiar with the festival.
"We were there and we actually performed a live show, so we already saw the size and the interest that people had at the festival," Batalion added. "It seems like even though Stockholm is the furthest we can be from Miami, Miami was an appropriate place to begin our journey."
Elman called it an honor to come return to the Miami Jewish Film Festival.
Batalion noted: "What is particularly exciting is that we are going to be doing these live presentations around the screening, which makes it alot more special, because you can't get that just sitting on your couch."
He said that attending a live screening is a different experience than watching something on streaming.
"You really have to come out and feel the sense community and energy," he continued. "We are just as much of live performers as we are filmmakers, so we're excited to take that energy and put it out there for the premiere," said Batalion.
The duo hopes audiences will be entertained as well as educated. They also have yet to see their movie with an audience so there's an excitement around that, too.
Elman said: "We do think it's educational, and we do think people are going to learn things they don't know. We know that the Miami Jewish community are very worldly, well-rounded, well-educated Jews, but we hope that film will be entertaining. We hope that watching and experiencing the film with an audience will bring the laughs."
From left, Eli Batalion and Jamie Elman perform in Sweden during "Swedishkayt: YidLife Crisis in Stockholm," which makes its world premiere at the upcoming 28th Miami Jewish Film Festival.
People interested in seeing the duo's comedy series or "Chewdaism: A Taste of Jewish Montreal' can visit yidlifecrisis.com.
- The film premieres at 8 p.m. on Jan 18 at Temple Beth Am, It also screens at 4 p.m. on Jan. 19 at the Michael-Ann Russell Jewish Community Center.
- For tickets and information, go to miamijewishfilmfestival.org.
- The 28th Miami Jewish Film Festival runs from Jan. 9 to Jan 23.
