Ansis can’t help but obey orders. As a sign painter in a small Latvian town in the early 1940s, even his color palette is not of his choosing, based as it is on orders from the Nazis. When not out painting the town, he spends time frolicking with Zisele, a wealthy merchant’s feisty Jewish daughter. Though he purports to be in love, he cannot ask for her hand in marriage due to her religion. As Nazism rises throughout Europe, tensions mount in the town. Zisele, already in a dangerous position due to antisemitism, decides to join the Communist party, which some neighbors consider an overt threat to the regime. Meanwhile, Ansis meets Naiga, the charming, yet capricious new woman in town. Before realizing it, he finds himself caught up in a love triangle set against the backdrop of the Second World War. With its stylish, vertiginous cinematography and first-rate production design, The Sign Painter is an illuminating and incisive portrait of what Eastern Europeans endured throughout the 20th century as they lived under multiple governments’ jurisdiction.

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Sponsored by Jayne Shapiro & Rosalind Spodek.

The Miami Jewish Film Festival virtual program is made possible with the generous support of Benjamin Nahum and Tamar Roodner.