For the past 27 years, the Jewish Federation of Lee and Charlotte counties has sponsored a landmark film festival that attracts viewers of all faiths and ethnicities.

The 28th annual Film Festival opens today, Thursday, Feb. 1, and offers a selection of films that provide unique insights into the Jewish religious and cultural experience in modern times and throughout history. This year, the event will be held during the entire month of February.

The feature-length films highlight various important and interesting aspects of Jewish life and culture in the United States and worldwide. For this event, the Federation has assembled an impressive list of 11 feature films and documentaries from around the world.

To launch the festival on Feb. 1, the festival offers “Dead Sea Guardian,” a saga of three historic enemies who join forces to stop the impending catastrophe of the death of the lowest place on earth and a wonder of the world.

This intriguing premiere is followed by the Feb. 4 matinee of “Remembering Gene Wilder,” that chronicles the life of the legendary comic actor, his iconic collaborations with Mel Brooks and his unforgettable portrayal of Willie Wonka.

For the entire month, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, documentaries and dramas based on true stories will offer insights into the lives of Holocaust survivors and other aspect of Jewish life and the influence of Jewish culture in the US and worldwide.

According to Federation Executive Director Deborah Sanford, “Modern film has become a common idiom of cross-cultural understanding and empathy. This certainly includes Jewish themed movies that depict Jewish life as a matter of our human experience. Our Film Festival serves not only to expose the local Jewish community to contemporary Jewish-themed film, but to illuminate the Jewish experience locally and globally for audiences of all backgrounds.”

This is certainly true of the gripping World War II drama, “Farewell, Haffman.” Set in Nazi-occupied France, it centers on a Jewish tailor who risks everything to forge identities and document that help others escape the horrors of the Holocaust.

All films are either in English or subtitled. Showings will be at the Regal BellTower Theater in South Fort Myers. Tuesday and Thursday screenings begin at 7:15 p.m., and the two matinees on Sunday, Feb. 4 and Sunday, Feb. 25 begin at 3 p.m.

For more information and to purchase tickets for individual films or the complete series, visit jewishfederationlcc.org/JFF2024.