«Denial» with Rachel Weisz to open the 4th MJFF

The opening ceremony of the 4th Moscow Jewish Film Festival will take place on May 22 at Oktyabr cinema.

The Russian premiere of «Denial» by Mick Jackson will become the first screening of the Festival. The film is based on a book and a life story of Deborah E. Lipstadt, the acclaimed Holocaust scholar. It stars Rachel Weisz, an Academy Award and Golden Globe winning actor.

The historical drama “Denial” is based on true events and recounts the famous court case between writer David Irving and Deborah E. Lipstadt. It began in 1996 with David Irving suing the scholar for publishing her book “Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory”, in which she described David as dangerous neo-nazi and Holocaust denier. During the trial Deborah and her lawyers had to prove that Irving was twisting the facts and that the Holocaust did really take place. In 2000 Deborah won the case and demonstrated that Irving was manipulating the documents because of his antisemitic views. During that trial the journals of Adolf Eichmann were made public for the first time, and afterwards Irving was liable to pay 3.2 million pounds to cover costs of the trial.

Konstantin Fam, Producer of the MJFF:

The 4th MJFF is supported by the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia, the Blavatnik Family Foundation, Genesis Philanthropy Group, the Russian Jewish Congress and Karo Art project.