PORTLAND — The Maine Jewish Film Festival opens Saturday, March 9 with the romantic comedy “Dorfman in Love” starring Sara Rue as a lovelorn 20-something and Elliott Gould as her difficult father. Screenwriter Wendy Kout will be in attendance for opening night. The MJFF runs March 9 through 16; tickets and full schedule details are available online at mjff.org.

In the opening movie, after her mother’s death Valley gal Deb Dorfman finds herself in the role of caretaker for her cantankerous father, while being the unrecognized brains of her brother’s accounting firm and the object of her sister-in-law’s relentless matchmaking efforts. Through a series of awkward events Deb discovers the confidence she needs to stand up to her meddling family and find love in her own unexpected way.

The festival is also offering several free screenings — a youth film for ages 13 to 17 Sunday, March 10; a film on adaptive skiing at the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies Monday, March 11; and Broadway Musicals will screen at USM’s Abromson Center, free for seniors  Wednesday, March 13 (please note, advance registration is required). Tickets are required for all free events.

In addition to personal appearances by seven of the filmmakers during the Festival, acclaimed soprano and Maine Public Broadcasting music director and radio host Suzanne Nance will introduce and facilitate the questions-and-answers following a period drama directed by Percy Adlon about the last summer of composer Gustav Mahler’s life titled “Mahler on the Couch.”

The festival takes place at the Nickelodeon Cinemas in downtown Portland at 1 Temple Street and other locations around Portland and the state including The Frontier in Brunswick and Colby College in Waterville.

MJFF Schedule March 9-16, 2013

Saturday, 3/9

8 p.m. Nickelodeon opening night film (separate ticket required to opening night party and film)

“Dorfman in Love” comedy drama

Director: Brad Leong / Writer: Wendy Kout

Starring: Sara Rue, Elliott Gould, Jonathan Chase, Johann Urb, and Haaz Sleiman

In Person: Wendy Kout present for question-and-answer

Saturday, 3/9

10 p.m. Nickelodeon

“This Must Be the Place” comedy drama

Director: Paolo Sorrentino

Starring: Sean Penn, Frances McDormand, Judd Hirsch, Harry Dean Stanton, Eve Hewson, David Byrne / Music by David Byrne

Cheyenne is a wealthy former rock star, who at 50 still dresses ‘Goth’ and lives in Dublin off his royalties. Although they haven’t spoken in years, when he learns his father is on his deathbed he’s compelled to overcome his fear of flying and make a trip to New York. He discovers his father’s obsession has been to seek revenge for a humiliation he suffered at the hands of an SS Officer in Auschwitz. Armed with a large handgun, Cheyenne sets off on a journey across America to find his father’s persecutor.

Sunday, 3/10

1 p.m. Nickelodeon

“Deceptive Practice: The Mysteries and Mentors of Ricky Jay” documentary

Directors: Molly Bernstein and Alan Edelstein / Featuring: David Mamet, Steve Martin and others

In Person: Molly Bernstein present for questions-and-answers

Ricky Jay (nee Potash) is widely considered the world’s greatest magician, a performer whose one-man shows draw rave reviews and sold-out houses. This warm and fascinating portrait of Jay offers a rare glimpse into the very private world of professional magicians, an entertainment tradition that stretches back hundreds of years and yet continues to delight and astonish contemporary audiences around the world.

Sunday, 3/10

3:30 p.m. Nickelodeon

“A Bottle in The Gaza Sea” drama

Director: Thierry Binitsi / Starring: Agathe Bonitzer, Mahmoud Shalaby

Based on the award-winning novel by Valérie Zenatti

Free Youth Film for ages 13 – 17

Seventeen-year-old Tal has emigrated from France to Jerusalem with her family. Following a bombing, she writes an open letter to the world, expressing her refusal to accept that only hatred can reign between Israelis and Palestinians. Her letter-in-a-bottle brings a response from Naïm, a young Palestinian. A turbulent but tender long-distance friendship develops as they both seek change in themselves and their world.

Sunday, 3/10

5:30 p.m. Nickelodeon

“Mahler on the Couch” drama

Directors: Percy and Felix Adlon

Starring: Johannes Silberschneider, Barbara Romaner, Karl Markovics

Scored with Mahler’s music, conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen

Following the screening, Suzanne Nance will facilitate a discussion of the film and Mahler’s music.

This is an exuberant imagining of the real-life marriage of Gustav Mahler and his tempestuous wife Alma Schindler. Alma seeks passion in the arms of the young, dashing architect Walter Gropius, which sends a tormented Mahler to Sigmund Freud for consultation.

Sunday, 3/10

8 p.m. Nickelodeon

“Portrait of Wally” documentary

Director: Andrew Shea

This tautly paced, arousing film traces the history of this iconic image – from Schiele’s gesture of affection for his young lover, to the Nazi theft of the painting, to its exhibition at MOMA and the 13-year court battle that ensued. A cinematic thriller that spins a web of intrigue exposing government manipulation, questionable philanthropists and institutional hypocrisy.

Monday, 3/11

5:30 p.m. Nickelodeon

“400 Miles to Freedom” documentary

Co-Directors: Avishai Mekonen & Shari Rothfarb Mekonen

In Person: Avishai Mekonen present for questions-and-answers

In 1984, the Beta Israel—a secluded 2,500-year-old community of observant Jews in the northern Ethiopian mountains—began a secret and dangerous escape to Israel. Co-director Avishai Mekonen, then 10 years old, was among them. In the film, he retraces his journey revealing the brutal kidnapping he endured as a child in Sudan during his family’s exodus and launches an inquiry into identity, immigration and racial diversity.

7 p.m. reception follows at the Museum of African Culture, 13 Brown Street.

Monday, 3/11

6 p.m. Salt Institute for Documentary Studies

“Beyond the Boundaries” documentary

Director: Yonatan Nir / Producer: Nina Zale

In Person: Nina Zale present for questions-and-answers

A life-affirming adaptive sports program in Aspen, Colorado “Golshim L’Chaim – Ski To Live” brings disabled Israeli soldiers to the Rocky Mountains for a week of training and relaxation. This film follows four participants, sharing their transformation from injured to empowered. They leave Aspen with new found self-esteem, allowing them the confidence to move forward in their lives.

Monday, 3/11

8 p.m. Nickelodeon

“Mabul (The Flood)” drama

Director: Guy Nattiv / Producer: Ina Fichman

Starring: Ronit Elkabetz, Tzahi Grad and Michael Moshonov

Yoni’s almost 13, academically gifted and tough-minded but physically still a child. He struggles daily to grow before his upcoming bar mitzvah. His classmates bully him and his parents barely speak to each other. Buried secrets come to light and although the foundation of family life is rocked, when forced to deal with this new reality, a delicate transformation begins to unfold.

Monday, 3/11

10 p.m. Nickelodeon

“This Must Be the Place” comedy drama

Tuesday, 3/12

5:30 p.m. Nickelodeon

“The Last White Knight” documentary

Director: Paul Saltzman

In Person: Paul Saltzman present for questions-and-answers

As a young man the filmmaker volunteered on the voter registration drive in the South. He was assaulted by Byron “Delay” De La Beckwith, the son of the man convicted of killing Civil Rights activist Medgar Evers. Decades later, Saltzman returns to Mississippi to meet with Beckwith and see what, if anything, has changed in the New South. He meets a wide range of people, including a trio of dedicated, unregenerate Klansmen.

7 p.m. reception follows at Greenhut Galleries, 146 Middle Street.

Tuesday, 3/12

8 p.m. Nickelodeon

“Let My People Go” comedy

Director: Mikael Buch / Starring: Nicolas Maury, Carmen Maura, Jean-François Stévenin

A sweet and hilarious fusion of gay romantic comedy, Jewish family drama and French bedroom farce, this zany film follows the lovelorn Reuben, a French-Jewish gay mailman living in fairytale Finland when a series of mishaps involving a parcel of cash and a lovers’ quarrel send him back to Paris and his eccentric family. The result is deeply heartwarming, fabulously kitschy and hysterically funny.

Wednesday, 3/13

1 p.m. USM/Abromson Center

Free film for ages 65 and older presented by The Cedars (ticket required)

“Broadway Musicals: A Jewish Legacy” documentary

Director: Michael Kantor / Narrator: Joel Gray

Featuring interviews with Stephen Sondheim, Mel Brooks, Phyllis Newman and Harold Prince, among others. Performance footage includes: Barbra Streisand, Zero Mostel, Nathan Lane, Matthew Broderick, Kristin Chenoweth, David Hyde Pierce and many more.

This film documents the unique role of Jewish composers and lyricists in the creation of the modern American musical, as well as many of the songs that comprise “The American Songbook.” A behind-the-scenes of Broadway history — engaging, humorous, and provocative, mixing an ethnic cultural legacy with entertaining perspectives on the origins and meaning of some of Broadway’s most beloved songs, stories, and shows.

Wednesday, 3/13

5:30 p.m. Nickelodeon

“In Darkness” drama

Director: Agnieszka Holland

Starring: Robert Wieckiewicz, Benno Furman, Agnieska Grochowska

When a sewer worker and petty thief in Lvov, a Nazi-occupied city in Poland, encounters a group of Jews trying to escape the liquidation of the ghetto, they pay him to be hidden in the labyrinth of sewers beneath the bustling activity of the city above. What starts out as a straightforward and cynical business arrangement turns into something very unexpected and an unlikely alliance forms.

Wednesday, 3/13

8 p.m. Nickelodeon

“Broadway Musicals: A Jewish Legacy” documentary

Wednesday, 3/13

10 p.m. Nickelodeon

“This Must Be the Place” comedy drama

Thursday, 3/14

1 p.m. Nickelodeon

“Ruth Dayan – My Life” documentary

Director: Elke Sasse

At 92, Ruth Dayan, ex-wife of legendary military man Moshe Dayan, shows no signs of slowing down. She is more determined than ever to encourage Israeli-Palestinian relations. This intimate documentary follows this tireless campaigner through her exhausting schedule and traces the story of her life. An inspiring glimpse into the heart of someone truly making a difference in the world, against enormous odds.

Thursday, 3/14

2 p.m. Nickelodeon

“Through The Eye of the Needle: The Art of Esther Nisenthal Krinitz” documentary

Director: Nina Shapiro-Perl

More than 40 years after the Holocaust, Esther Nisenthal Krinitz depicted her remarkable story of survival through a stunningly beautiful series of 36 fabric collage and embroidery panels. Through Esther’s own words and images of her art work, as well as interviews with her daughters and others, this film explores the capacity of the human heart to heal.

Thursday, 3/14

3 p.m. Maine Historical Society

Reception follows.

“Jewish Soldiers in Blue and Gray” documentary

Director: Jonathan Gruber / Narrated by John Milius, with Sam Waterston as the voice of Abraham Lincoln

In Person: Jonathan Gruber present for questions-and-answers

The remarkable history of the Civil War Jews who fought on both sides—7,000 for the Union and 3,000 for the Confederacy. The war split the Jewish community as deeply as it did the nation at large: some prominent Jews, including Jewish slave owners, cited the Torah to justify slavery, while others were leaders in the abolitionist movement or established their synagogues as stops on the Underground Railroad.

Thursday, 3/14

5:15 p.m. Maine Historical Society special work-in-progress screening presented by Maine Media Workshops and College

“In Raquel’s Footsteps” drama documentary

Director: Gabriela Bohm who will be present for questions-and-answers

From the shtetl to the tango … more than 30,000 Jewish women were lured from Europe to the New World, only to be devoured in Argentinean prostitution rings run by Jewish criminals. This film is about an ordinary woman — Raquel Liberman — whose story was buried and forgotten, until now. This film traces her journey from wife and mother to exploited woman to a defiantly free woman.

Thursday, 3/14

6 p.m. The Frontier, Brunswick

“Broadway Musicals: A Jewish Legacy” documentary

Thursday, 3/14

7 p.m. Free film at Colby College/Olin Hall 1

“Jewish Soldiers in Blue and Gray” documentary

Reception follows.

In Person: Jonathan Gruber present for questions-and-answers, joined by Prof. Elizabeth Leonard

Thursday, 3/14

7:15 p.m. Nickelodeon Double Feature

“Yossi”

Director: Eytan Fox

Starring: Ohad Knoller, Oz Zehavi, Lior Ashkenazi, Orly Silbersatz Banai

Dr. Yossi Hoffman has become a valued and dedicated cardiologist, often using his work as a way to escape from dealing with his anguished life. He lives alone, still closeted, unable to break through the walls and defenses built around him since the death of his lover. After the arrival of a mysterious woman, he receives a rare opportunity to deal with his trauma.

“Yossi & Jagger”

Director: Eytan Fox

Starring: Ohad Knoller, Yehuda Levi, Assi Cohen, Aya Koren

Yossi is a serious and strong-featured military commander; Jagger is his free-spirited and boyishly handsome charge. They are both soldiers in the Israeli army, and they are in love. Based on a true story, this film portrays their secret love, set in a remote army base along the Israeli-Lebanese border. In a time of strife and uncertainty, Yossi and Jagger find hope in their unforgettable and emotionally charged romance.

Pre-screening reception at Styxx from 5:30 to 7 p.m.

Saturday, 3/16

7 p.m. One Longfellow Square

Closing night reception follows

“Hava Nagila (The Movie)” documentary

Director: Roberta Grossman / Featuring: Harry Belafonte, Leonard Nimoy, Connie Francis, Glen Campbell, Regina Spektor and others

The musical shorthand for anything Jewish, a happy party tune that you dance to at weddings, bar mitzvahs and even at Major League Baseball games. Yet the song is much more than a tale of Jewish kitsch and bad bar mitzvah fashions. It carries with it an entire constellation of history, values and hopes for the future. In its own way, Hava Nagila encapsulates the Jewish journey over the past 150 years.

Sunday, 3/17

7 p.m. Bangor Opera House in association with the Penobscot Theatre Company

“Dorfman in Love” comedy drama