The 11th annual Central Florida Jewish Film Festival is a cinematic celebration of Jewish life, culture, and history. “Using the power of film to inform, educate, and most of all entertain, the festival challenges conventional perspectives.

On issues facing all of us,” says the Enzian’s Web site. This program is part of Enzian’s cultural festival circuit and is co-presented with the Roth Jewish Community Center of Greater Orlando. Heritage Associate Editor Lyn Payne reviews all four selections on page 12A.

This year’s films all come from Israel: Winner of the Audience Award for Best Feature at the 2008 Los Angeles Jewish and Palm Beach International Film Festivals, “The Little Traitor” is based on the novel “Panther in the Basement” by world-renowned author Amos Oz.

Set in 1947 Palestine, just a few months before Israel becomes a state, this coming-of-age tale written and directed by Lynn Roth centers on Proffy Liebowitz (Ido Port), a precocious 12-year-old boy who has grown up under British occupation and wants nothing more than for the British to get out of his land.  But when he’s caught breaking curfew by the worldly and kind Sergeant Dunlop (Alfred Molina, “Dr. Octopus” in “Spider Man 2,” “An Education”), a unique friendship develops between these two “enemies” as tensions escalate and friends and neighbors (including a cameo byTheodore Bikel) grow suspicious and are quick to judge.

Nominated for seven Israeli Academy Awards and a major award winner at the Moscow, Cinequest, and Sofia Film Festivals, Dror Zahavi’s thriller “For My Father” is the story of a young Palestinian man forced on a suicide mission in Tel Aviv to redeem his father’s honor. Given a second chance when the fuse on his explosive vest fails to detonate, Tarek must spend the weekend living the people he was planning to kill as he awaits its repair. To his surprise he connects with several Israelis on the outskirts of society, including the beautiful and rebellious Keren, who has cut off contact with her Orthodox family.  But with the deadly load of explosives still strapped to his body, Tarek finds himself caught between the men that sent him (who can blow up his bomb remotely), the Israeli police patrolling the streets, and his new-found friends.  Discovering a new spark to his life, a decision must be made as the 48 hours come to a close…

“The Debt” was nominated for four Israeli Academy Awards and called “One of the best Israeli films of the year” by Channel 1 Television in Israel. Assaf Bernstein’s unique psychological cat-and-mouse espionage thriller was a box-office hit in its native country. In 1964, three young Mossad agents are on a mission to capture “The Surgeon of Birkenau,” a monstrous Nazi war criminal now working under a false identity as a gynecologist in a small clinic in Berlin.  But when things don’t go as planned, a lie is perpetrated and now, more than 30 years later, they must protect themselves when the Surgeon suddenly resurfaces in the Ukraine, determined to confess his crimes against humanity.  But how do you terminate a man already thought dead, and how do you find redemption for misdeeds of the past?  Handsomely filmed on location and featuring a stellar international cast, “The Debt” already has an English-language remake in the works from Miramax starring Helen Mirren.

Nominated for 13 Israeli Academy Awards (including Best Picture, Actor, Director, and Screenplay) and winner of three including Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress, “A Matter of Size” is a “hilarious yet moving comedy,” part sports drama and part love story—a sweetly absurd tale of forlorn blue-collar guys pursuing a difficult goal and in the process learning to accept themselves.  Fed up with dieting, four overweight friends in the Israeli city of Ramle—including shy former chef/now Japanese restaurant dishwasher Herzl, who lives with his mother—decide to start a sumo wrestling club.  But will the 340-pound Herzl’s commitment to the sport involving “two fatsos in diapers and girly hairdos” ruin his budding relationship with sympathetic plus-size social worker Zehava? It’s a “coming out” story of a different kind.