WEST HARTFORD – Eighteen award-winning films from 10 countries will be featured at the 21st Annual Mandell JCC Hartford Jewish Film Festival, which runs from Thursday, March 16 through Sunday, March 26. The films will be screened at five venues in Bloomfield, Hartford and West Hartford.

The festival opens with “On the Map,” an inspiring documentary that takes viewers back to Israel in 1977, when a ragtag bunch of American basketball players representing Israel miraculously defeated the Soviet Union European Championship team.

Among the Festival’s other highlights: “Supergirl,” a documentary about an 11-year-old Orthodox Jewish girl from New Jersey training to be a power-lifter, followed by a panel discussion with several experts who work with adolescents; several episodes of the hit Israeli TV series “Shtisel,” winner of 12 Television Ophir Awards (the Israeli Emmys); “Fire Birds,” nominated for 10 Ophir Awards (the Israeli “Oscar”) and winner of an Ophir for Best Supporting Actress; “Big Sonia,” the story of Kansas City’s last remaining Holocaust survivors; “Sabena Hijacking – My Version,” a nerve-racking reenactment of the events surrounding the 1972 hijacking of a Brussels-to-Tel Aviv flight; “Jerry Lewis: The Man Behind the Clown,” accompanied by the short film “The Last Blintz.”

Other films scheduled to be screened include: “Moos,” ”Hill Start,” “AKA Nadia,” “The Man Who Saved the Louvre,” “My Hero Brother,” “The Women’s Balcony,” “The Last Band in Lebanon,” ”The Origin of Violence,” and “Mr. Predictable.”

The festival closes with “Fanny’s Journey,” the story of a group of children in 1943 Italy who make a desperate attempt to avoid being caught by the Nazis by trying to reach the Swiss border.

For tickets, more information and a Film Festival brochure visit the Festival website at hjff.org, or call (860) 231-6316 or (860) 236-4571.

CAP: “On the Map”