For most of his adult life, Saul Bellow was the most acclaimed novelist in America and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, three National Book Awards, and the Pulitzer Prize, among others. A Library of Congress Ken Burns Prize Finalist, The Adventures of Saul Bellow is the first-ever documentary film about this literary icon, the man described by critic James Wood as the "greatest of American prose stylists in the 20th century" and one of the most acclaimed chroniclers of post-war American Jewish life. Director Asaf Galay (Hasidistock, MJFF 2019) weaves a chronological study of Bellow’s oeuvre with an intimate portrait of the writer’s inner life and relationships. Bellow's revolutionary impact on American literature is examined, as are his many identities as a writer, polemicist, father, Chicagoan, Jew, and American. According to Philip Roth, one of the many people interviewed, what was liberating about Bellow’s fiction compared to other Jewish writers at the time was that he presented Jews as they were rather than trying to honor or defend them. Similar insights by writers such as Philip Roth, Salman Rushdie, and Martin Amis make this compulsory viewing for Bellow and American literature fans.

Accompanying the film premiere is a discussion with director Asaf Galay and moderator Dr. Meri-Jane Rochelson, professor emeritus at Florida International University. To view the conversation please click here.

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The 2022 Miami Jewish Film Festival virtual program is made possible with the generous support of Benjamin Nahum and Tamar Roodner.