I've been waiting for about two months for the Oregon Jewish Museum (OJM) to have a screening. Why? Because even though I was underwhelmed by the still-running exhibit I first went there to see, the museum's new location has a really awesome screening room. It's a small—I mean, intimate—space, but once you factor in the 35-50 person capacity and the ornate art-deco wallpaper and light fixtures, you'll instantly be in the movie-watching mood.

On April 15th, OJM presents a movie worthy of its walls: the 2002 foreign film Oscar-winner Nowhere in Africa (or Nirgendwo in Afrika—it's German). The story follows a German family that flees the Nazis in 1938 and instead of ending up in Casablanca or Palestine, find themselves on a farm in Kenya. To quote one IMDB reviewer, "I saw this film twice, once on Saturday and once on the following Tuesday. I never do this." 15 out of 17 people found that review useful. Make that 16 out of 18.

Now your turn, trailer.

L'chaim. The Northwest Film Center's Jewish Film Festival also starts on April 15th. Don't be sucked in by Hello Goodbye's reunion of Gérard Depardieu and Fanny Ardant (who were previously paired in Truffaut's La Femme d'à Côté); according to reviews, it stinks. Instead, I'd check out Mary and Max, a claymation number with voice acting by Philip Seymour Hoffman and Toni Collette. According to Ned, it's funny and depressing. What's not to like?

Perhaps Rabbi P.I. will soon lose its title as my favorite Jewish film.

Oregon Jewish Museum is at 1953 NW Kearney; screening April 15th at 7pm, $10. Jewish Film Festival movies screen at the Whitsell Auditorium at 1219 SW Park (in the Portland Art Museum). See the full schedule here.