I spoke with Yael Schlichting, who was born in 1965 in Munich and wasn't brought up Jewish. Her political conscience was kick started in September 1972 following the massacre of the Israeli Olympic team in her home town and after the Yom Kippur war it grew stronger. For a short period she was a member of the Free Democratic Party in Germany, but quit frustrated with its equivocations about freedom.

She has left Germany because she doesn't feel safe there, suggesting that freedom is something the vast majority of the Germans don't value. She doesn't vote any more in Germany, as she is profoundly unhappy with every single political party there. We discuss the rise of Alternative for Germany (AfD) and its support for Israel. (0:36-26:05)

I interview Ofer Pinchasov, the director, producer, editor and writer of the film King of the Sephardim, which is about Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, osef who was an Iraqi-born Talmudic scholar, a posek, the Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Israel from 1973 to 1983, and a founder and long-time spiritual leader of Israel's ultra-Orthodox Shas party, which is screening at JIFF. (26:12-41:30)

Miles Spencer, who co-wrote A Line in the Sand, which captures the essence of the Middle East with a richly detailed historical fiction of two lifelong friends - Magnus and Finn - thrown into a sleuthing adventure, where mysteries of the Middle East and its people are revealed. (41:32-57:12)