PLAYING: MIDTOWN CINEMA

SUNDAY, JUNE 11 • BOOK CLUB FILM EVENT • from 9:00 AM

Join us for our annual Book Club event (a Festival favorite!):  bagels-and-more “nosh” from 9:00 a.m.; The Little Traitor screening at 10:00; a discussion of the film and the Amos Oz novel, Panther in the Basement, upon which it is based,* at 11:30, with Dr. Helen Khanzhina.

Israel/US, 2007/Family drama, 89 minutes/English, Hebrew w/subtitles/Written & directed by Lynn Roth, based on the novel Panther in the Basement by Amos Oz 

Palestine, 1947.  Eleven-year-old Proffy Liebowitz has lived his entire life under the British Mandate, and, like his parents and everyone he knows, he wants nothing more than for the occupying British to get out of his land.  He and his two friends spend most of their time plotting ways to terrorize and/or blow up British troops, until one evening, out after curfew, Proffy actually meets one, when he is seized by one Sergeant Dunlop (Alfred Molina). Instead of arresting the boy, Dunlop deposits him back home with an invitation to visit him at the British military headquarters.  Proffy takes him up on the offer in the hope of gaining intelligence for himself and his gang, but instead what ensues is a cherished friendship that Proffy must keep secret from his family and friends.  

* Read the book, see the film:  Panther in the Basement is readily available online at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Thrift Books