The 7th Barcelona Jewish film festival has been hailed as an example of the renewal of Jewish life in the city.

Some 1,800 people attended the week long event which showcased the diversity of Jewish culture – from Holocaust documentaries to a British-Jewish film.

Festival director Paulo Feferbaum, said he was extremely proud of how the event has promoted Jewish culture in Spain.

“All the members of the festival organization, volunteers both Jewish and non-Jewish, are interested in promoting better understanding among the Jewish community and the rest of the cultures that flourish in Barcelona,” the director said.

As well as showing films the program included a wide range of cultural activities including debates, lectures, round tables and performances.

Feferbaum added that the festival, which focused on the Jewish Diaspora, “worked to cultivate ideological debates and promote mutual understanding between different cultures.”

Memory and Present

The screening of the documentary film “Shoah”, directed by Frenchman Claude Lanzman, was the main showcase of the festival. The nine hour film negates the need for archive footage to capture the public’s perception, and instead uses only interviews with survivors.

The festival included the premier of another documentary film evoking the Holocaust. “Desmemorias” (“Un-memories”) by Spanish producer Paola Perkal focuses on the Holocaust from the perspective of sons and grandsons of the survivors.

The movie relays the experiences and feelings of a group of 21 young men and women, Europeans and Latin-Americans, Jewish and non-Jewish, who traveled together to Poland, tracking the Holocaust.

Reality and fiction

Quality films from different countries, covering many different subjects were screened at the Festival. “Wondrous Oblivion” (Great Britain, 2004) directed by Paul Morrison, which opened the Festival, is a story of coexistence and tolerance.

“Olga” (Brazil, 2004) directed by Jayme Monjardim and based on the novel by Fernando de Moraes, tells the story of the Jewish German communist Olga Benario Prestes.

“The Burial Society” (Canada 2004), by Nicholas Raccz, is a tragicomedy about a Jewish moneylender who get involved in money laundry.

“18-J” (Spain, 2004), a movie of 10 short films, 10 minutes each, made by 10 Argentinean directors to honor the memory of the 85 mortal victims and hundreds of injured of the bombing perpetrated against the Jewish community in Buenos Aires in 1994.

The premier of the film concurred with the 11th Anniversary of this terrorist attack. This film was screened in the Square of the Call (old Jewish neighborhood) of Barcelona, which was opened to the event for the first time.

Barcelona and Jews

A Jewish community was established in Catalonia some some 1,700 years ago and today there are approximately 10.000 Jews in Barcelona.

Until the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492, the intellectuals from Barcelona, together with those from Girona, had a great reputation and were known as the “Escuela Catalana”, a sort of academy.

During the Middle ages, Jews in Catalonia represented an important intellectual and academic group who played a capital role in the cultural life. They teached medicine, mathematics, geography, Bible, Kabbalah (Jewish mysticism) and philosophy.

After the expulsion, there is no proof of Jewish life in Barcelona until the 19th Century.