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, . 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.

Sweet Mud