The Pittsburgh Jewish Israeli Film Festival spins the clock back to 1947 for its opening night movie and then examines subjects as diverse as Holy Land hardball and inside baseball, Hollywood style.

Here are reviews of a sampling of first-week movies. Also playing is "A Secret," which closes today at the Squirrel Hill Theater. You can read that review here.

3 1/2 stars = Very good
Ratings explained

Anyone who has seen "Rudy" or "Miracle" or "The Rookie" knows that underdogs are an essential part of the sports film formula. But "Holy Land Hardball" takes the woeful team from "Major League" and does it one or two better.

This documentary focuses on a Massachusetts businessman who wants to introduce professional baseball to Israel, a nation with just two fields, one of which was designed for softball. Most Israelis don't understand or appreciate the game, arguing it takes too long, is starved for action or downright lazy.

But Larry Baras, a bagel baron from Brookline, Mass., and son of a man who often wore a San Francisco Giants cap around the house instead of a yarmulke, wants to change all that. "Except for the players, fields and fans, we've got everything all set," he says with deadpan humor 313 days before the scheduled 2007 opening pitch.

The dream team includes a 40-year-old clothing manufacturer, husband and father of three, a 26-year-old former college player working as a coach and disc jockey, and standouts from the Dominican Republic who associate Israel with bomb blasts they see on TV.

A T-shirt produced by the fledgling league asks, "Baseball in Israel? Vy Not!" but the reasons start to stack up. The players are in this for the love of the game, rather than the puny paycheck, but the documentary captures the mounting tension.

Directors Brett Rapkin and Erik Kesten make us root for this league before the first knuckleball is ever thrown. That's because they allow us to get to know a handful of athletes behind the punchy headlines like "It's a Bat Mitzvah!"

The movie never reveals how much money investors poured into the league, and it disappoints with a brief epilogue at the end that tells us what happened afterward but not why. Still, you gotta love these guys, even the 70-something Holocaust survivor who could have inspired the song "Centerfield" with its entreaty to "Put me in coach, I'm ready to play ... ."

Not rated but family friendly, except for a smattering of f-words heard in the background.

3 stars = Good
Ratings explained

This fictional movie, set in modern-day Germany, had its roots in real life in 1967 at Cubberley High School in Palo Alto, Calif.

World history instructor Ron Jones was teaching his students about the Holocaust when one asked how the Germans could have permitted the slaughter and later claimed no knowledge of it. In less than a week, Jones showed how fascism could take hold; he spun his experience into an 1981 ABC special and book, now a German-language film.

Rainer Wenger (Jurgen Vogel) is a cool, hip teacher (clad in a Ramones T-shirt when we first see him) who thought he would be teaching a week's lesson about "anarchy" but instead draws "autocracy." When Wenger plants the seeds of fascism, he's stunned by how much his students enjoy the group think, the discipline, salute, uniform and logo of the movement they dub "The Wave."

But his experiment drives a wedge between him and his wife along with his fellow teachers and turns deadly in a way he could not have imagined.

"The Wave" has been updated to reflect today's obsession with celebrities, the Internet, tagging and violence, although the movie steps across the line to make its point in the most dramatic, disturbing way. It turns out that the road to ruin can be paved with good intentions and lesson plans.

In German, with English subtitles.

3 stars = Good
Ratings explained

This story, set in 1947 Palestine, reminds us that the enemy in abstract is very different than the enemy in reality or person. Eleven-year-old Proffy -- the brainy boy's nickname is short for Professor -- hates the British who are occupying his country.

The son of Polish Jews whose families were decimated by the Holocaust, Proffy is part of a fanciful "Freedom or Death" gang. The pre-teens paint "British Go Home" on a wall, plot ways to blow up military trucks and take out their frustrations with toy soldiers.

When Proffy is caught on the street after curfew, British Sgt. Dunlop (Alfred Molina) lets him go with a warning and the kernel of a burgeoning friendship. But when Proffy's pals, parents and neighbors find out he's consorting with the enemy, a skirmish of another sort threatens to break out.

The matter is deadly serious for Proffy, but the movie is generally as sunny as its Jerusalem weather. Many of its comic moments spring from Proffy's fascination with a beautiful neighbor, while Molina's character exhibits remarkable foresight about Jewish-Arab tensions down the decades.

As Proffy, Ido Port is a charmer, bursting with intelligence, innocence, curiosity and deeply felt emotions while Molina is relaxed, confident and fatherly in the most comfortable way.

The movie is based on the novel "Panther in the Basement" by Amos Oz, and it seems the perfect choice for opening night. It strikes a chord for harmony, honors a sense of history and reminds us that even "enemies" can find and forge common ground.

Not rated but in Hebrew and English with some subtitles.

2 stars = Mediocre
Ratings explained

Even the kindly wives of rabbis or doctors counseled Yossi's parents to place him in an institution. "You have other children who are entitled to their parents, to a life, not only Yossi."

Almost three decades ago, Yossi was a normal, healthy boy who was among several hundred Israeli children given a faulty vaccine that killed them or left them severely retarded and with limited motor skills. The vaccine also robbed Yossi of most of his sight and hearing.

We meet him as a 28-year-old man who has done far better than anyone ever imagined, thanks to his devoted parents and caretakers, but whose desire to have a girlfriend may be beyond his grasp. "About Yossi" follows Yossi as his parents revisit key places or people in their lives and seek the counsel of rabbis and matchmakers.

With a running time of just 53 minutes, "About Yossi" seems more like a TV special than a film willing to explore the hard questions about whether Yossi should marry or what will happen when his wonderful parents are no longer around. "About Yossi," being screened with a 23-minute short called "Reaching Hedva," is more inspirational tale of optimism and family devotion than full-fledged documentary.

In Hebrew with English subtitles.

1 1/2 stars = Bad
Ratings explained

Insider satires about the movie business can be delicious. This just doesn't happen to be one of them, despite a cast led by William H. Macy and Meg Ryan with Jason Ritter, Elliott Gould and LL Cool J in small roles.

Macy is a Hollywood has-been producer about to commit suicide when his nephew (Ritter) arrives at his door bearing a script about 19th-century political rivals Benjamin Disraeli and William Gladstone. Macy's Charlie Berns pitches it as a project for an action star (LL Cool J) who is a recent Jewish convert and a most non-traditional pick for Disraeli.

"The Deal" has a nondescript title, too much inside baseball, enough subplots to support an entire film festival and a leading couple (Ryan is a studio exec) who are unlikable too much of the time.

Macy co-wrote the screenplay and gives himself a little bit of everything from partial nudity and comic banter to launching himself onto a car's windshield as a dramatic gesture of emotion. In the parlance of game-show host Howie Mandel, however, I'd say no deal.

Rated R for sexual content and language.