St. Louis Jewish Film Festival: “Resistance” Live Webinar with Star Jesse Eisenberg & Director Jonathan Jakubowicz

Thursday, May 7, 7:30pm
Live Webinar with cast and crew of Resistance
Featuring Jesse Eisenberg, star of the film, and Jonathan Jakubowicz, director/writer
Free event; advanced registration is required.
After the live webinar, a free recording will be available at jccstl.com/virtual

Watch Resistance OnlineRegister for Webinar

The St. Louis Jewish Film Festival is excited to bring an exciting film opportunity to our J community. Join us on Thursday, May 7 at 7:30pm for an exclusive Zoom webinar with the director and the star of the upcoming film, Resistance, Jonathan Jakubowicz and Jesse Eisenberg. This live Zoom webinar is available only for our St. Louis community and will be moderated by Dan Reich, Curator and Director of Education at the St. Louis Holocaust Museum and Learning Center.

This webinar opportunity is free, but advanced registration is required. To register, click here.

Watch the film prior to the webinar! During this time of social distancing, Resistance is available on multiple online platforms for $6.99, including Amazon Digital, Spectrum OnDemand, Apple TV, Google Play and YouTube. For for a full list of video-on-demand options, click here.

This opportunity is in partnership with IFC Films and Mean Streets Management, as well as the St. Louis Holocaust Museum and Learning Center.

Resistance Synopsis: As a young man growing up in Nazi-occupied France, Marcel Mangel has no intention of getting involved in World War II. As a theater performer in his twenties, Marcel’s pursuits include impersonating Charlie Chaplin in burlesque clubs, painting backdrops for his plays, and antagonizing his obstinate father.

However, his life is permanently altered when, after witnessing acts of atrocity, he is recruited into the French Resistance. And the performer, who forges his passport to the name Marcel Marceau, puts his skills to the ultimate test, working at incredible risk to help transport orphaned Jewish children from Nazi-occupied France into Switzerland. Employing daring acts of real-life performance, imagination, and sleight-of-hand, he saved the lives of hundreds of children. In an act of compassion and generosity that would ripple into his professional life, he also taught orphaned children how to survive in the horrifying reality of the Holocaust.

Marceau, who died in 2007 at the age of 84, delighted generations of audiences over the course of his career. For his unique, wordless ability to embody dozens of characters and situations, Marceau was the most famous mime in all the world. Celebrated as the “Master of Silence,” he performed all across the globe and appeared in films and on television – including a memorable cameo in Mel Brooks’s Silent Movie, where he performs his “Walking Against the Wind” stunt and, in a hilariously ironic twist, speaks the only word of dialogue in the whole movie.

Resistance is the first-ever film to tell the incredible story of Marceau’s heroism during the war. Portraying the singular entertainer is Oscar-nominee Jesse Eisenberg ( The Social Network, Now You See Me, Zombieland), who is supported in the cast by Ed Harris (Apollo 13, Westworld) as Gen. George S. Patton, Édgar Ramírez (Hands of Stone, The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story), Clémence Poésy (Harry Potter, In Bruges, War and Peace), Bella Ramsay (Game of Thrones, Judy), Géza Röhrig (Son of Saul) as Marceau’s cousin Georges Loinger, and Matthias Schweighöfer (Valkyrie, Kursk) as the notorious Klaus Barbie.

A compelling drama from director Jonathan Jakubowicz (Hands of Stone, Secuestro Express), whose own family history was a point of inspiration, Resistance traces how a revolutionary, selfless act of courage forever changed countless lives – and how a group of unsung heroes risked everything to rise above hatred and oppression.