Yay! SFist Mihi's back on the scene, covering the opening night festivities for the SF Jewish Film Fest!

The San Francisco Jewish Film Festival (SFJFF) is the first and only Jewish film festival in the world. At least that's what the President of the SFJFF said at the Castro Theatre last night when he introduced the opening night movie, Sweet Mud. This is the kind of thing that makes us so proud to live here. Suck it, New York! We'd give our left nut for one morsel of your pastrami (extra juicy with a side of half sours please) but we have a Jewish Film Festival!

Sweet Mud is the torturous story of a freakishly beautiful 12 year-old boy named Dvir. (The story isn't about him being freakishly beautiful, that's just our personal opinion). Dvir's mother, who is already teetering on the brink of instability, is slowly becoming unhinged by lost love and the tyranny of life on a Kibbutz. (Watch the trailer.)

During the Q&A after the movie the audience seemed fixated on the movie as commentary on the Kibbutz system, especially since the director/writer, Dror Shaul was born and raised on one. Shaul summed it up nicely when he said that the movie was really about how "Kibbutz failed the individual the way the mother failed the son."

After the jump: He did WHAT with a cow?

SFist Mihi, contributing.

When the credits rolled we were in a pretty dark mood and were surprised when our plus-one leaned over and said, "do you think people really do that with cows?" We don't think we'd be giving too much away to let you know the movie opens with a cow-man blow job. Apparently this was a burning question for others too since the very first question from an irritated audience member was about the necessity of a scene involving an "animal/human relationship."

The second question was from a guy who said, he was from the Bay Area Reporter and he "loved" the opening scene. We're pretty sure he wasn't implying that the gay community is all about the cow-man bj, but the way it sounded was pretty darn hilarious. And what a relief. A movie about exploded ideals of community, a 12-year-old boy trying to save his mother and the folly of true love is pretty much bummer-city. Not that we wouldn't recommend Sweet Mud, but we feel all film festivals should agree right now to kick off their festivals on a high note.

Sweet Mud plays again on:
August 2 at the Aquarius Theatre
August 4 at the Roda Theatre in Berkeley
August 6 at Smith Rafael Film Center