THE JEWISH GRANDMOTHER FESTIVAL (November 13, 2015)
As I am sitting in the café of Kino Europa in the center of Zagreb and sipping my drink, the lobby of the cinema unexpectedly becomes crowded. Soon enough, the noise turns deafening. When I look around, I see that I am surrounded by women in their sixties, seventies, and eighties. There are very few elderly men among them, and all of them keep mum. But all the women are surprisingly loud. Apparently, most of them know each other very well, and they keep yelling with joy when they spot each other in the crowd. It takes me a while to realize what is going on. It is the Jewish Film Festival, which started in the same cinema in 2007. Although it is still morning, the first film of the day is about to start. With my American hat on, I cannot but think of the event as the Jewish Grandmother Festival. The film festival needs renaming, no doubt.