The film “Call Me By Your Name” features Jewish main characters and will screen opening night during the Miami Film Festival’s mini-fest, GEMS 2017.
The film makes its Florida premiere on Oct. 12 at 7 p.m. at Miami-Dade College’s Tower Theater, 1508 SW 8th St. in Miami.
The film is directed by Italian filmmaker Luca Guadagnino , written by James Ivory and based on the novel by André Aciman. It is set in 1983 in the Lombardy, Italy countryside where an antiquities academic, Professor Perlman (Michael Stuhlbarg), invites a young American Jewish scholar named Oliver (Armie Hammer) to stay with his family at their 17th century palazzo, and assist him with a summer research project. The professor’s adolescent son Elio (Timothée Chalamet) becomes fascinated by Oliver, and the two develop a passionate relationship while also bonding over their shared Jewish heritage.
“The main characters of ‘Call Me By Your Name’ are all Jewish and among the most vivid, complex and multi-nuanced characters created in cinema for this year or many years,” said Jaie Laplante, the Miami Film Festival’s executive director. “Part of the reason for opening our GEMS festival with “Call Me By Your Name” would be an important acknowledgement of the vivid presence of the Jewish community in South Florida.”
Rachel Bleemer, the film festival’s director of corporate sponsorships and events, said, “I’m from Jewish descent and Jewish-inspired films are really important for this community in general in order to inspire movie-goers to expand their understanding of Jewish culture.”