Austin Jewish Film Festival’s 22nd Season Opens with the film directed by Sal Litvak, Guns and Moses,
FADE IN:
A CHILEAN CITYSCAPE TRANSFORMS INTO NEW YORK CITY.
NARRATOR (V.O.)
Sal Litvak’s journey from Santiago, Chile, to New York City began when he was just five. His path was marked by prestigious institutions, starting with Harvard, where he completed his undergraduate studies, followed by NYU Law and then UCLA Film School, setting the stage for a life in storytelling.
CUT TO: STILL SHOTS FROM THE PASSOVER COMEDY “WHEN DO WE EAT?”
NARRATOR (V.O.)
Litvak’s breakthrough came with the comedy When Do We Eat?, a Passover tale that’s become a cult favorite. The film is packed with a standout ensemble—Max Greenfield, Ben Feldman, Shiri Appleby, Lesley Ann Warren, Michael Lerner, and Jack Klugman in his final role—a humor-filled look at family and tradition.
FADE INTO: CIVIL WAR-ERA PHOTOGRAPHS. A SOLDIER (WARD HILL LAMON) GUARDS ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
NARRATOR (V.O.)
Switching gears, Litvak then turned to history with Saving Lincoln. This indie epic captures the true friendship between Lincoln and his bodyguard, Ward Hill Lamon. Using a groundbreaking technique he coined “CineCollage,” Litvak placed actors within real Civil War photos, creating an immersive, time-bending visual style.
CUT TO: STUDENTS IN A CLASSROOM OPEN HISTORY BOOKS FEATURING SAVING LINCOLN‘S GETTYSBURG SCENE.
NARRATOR (V.O.)
The film’s impact reached beyond cinemas; its Gettysburg Address scene was immortalized in American history textbooks, giving students nationwide a unique perspective on Lincoln’s legacy.
FADE OUT.
Script Summary
Guns and Moses is a crime thriller and takes place in the California high desert, where a beloved small-town rabbi becomes an unlikely gunslinger after his community is violently attacked. The echoes of a vicious assault haunt Rabbi Mo’s synagogue. Mo, played by Mark Feuerstein, steps into the role of investigator. As the body count rises, he’s forced to confront an undercurrent of hatred twisting through the town, uncovering disturbing alliances that lead him down a path he’s never walked before.
With only his faith as a compass, Mo must reach across a yawning divide of fear and prejudice, forming an uneasy bond with the very person who once embodied the hate he despises. But when the violent reality becomes undeniable, Mo’s convictions blur: how far will he go to protect his own? When he’s finally forced to take up arms, will he pull the trigger—or will he find, in that final moment, a way to reconcile his beliefs with a thirst for justice?
At the story’s heart lies an exploration of unexpected empathy and resilience, an intimate journey through the complexities of forgiveness and vengeance, as Rabbi Mo confronts a truth he never wanted to face about himself and the community he’s come to protect.
Director Sal Litvak utilizes a Western theme with humor (and music) against the whodunnit to create intense curiosity, a psychological questioning that lurks throughout the film.
I had a chance to speak with the enigmatic and erudite Sal Litvak before the Premiere. A genuinely nice guy, “a mensch,” he flew in for the film, which premiered at the Los Angeles Film Festival and is set to be distributed nationwide in April 2025.
He tells Sun News Austin “My wife and writing partner Nina and I conceived Guns & Moses in the wake of the 2019 Chabad synagogue shooting in Poway, California. I attended Lori Gilbert-Kaye’s funeral, interviewed Rabbi Goldstein for my social media platform, Accidental Talmudist, and watched him become a national figure. We knew that antisemitic attacks would remain relevant, but we never imagined that the worst violence since the Holocaust would occur on October 7, 2023, during post-production of our film. Nor did we imagine the appalling spectacle of politicians, professors, students, and agitators spewing Jew-hatred publicly since October 8, before the Israeli response had even begun.”
“Like many American Jews, I didn’t consider the Second Amendment to be significant. As an adult, however, I became an Orthodox Jew – which is to say, a visible Jew – and I grew increasingly aware of the danger to our community.”
Sal was trained in firearms as a member of Magen Am. He used this knowledge accurately in the film, and Rabbi Mo’s holding of his gun and training are totally authentic.
“The cliché in movies is that when a civilian learns to wield a gun, there’s a 30-second montage of him shooting cans off a fence, and suddenly he’s an expert gunman. We made sure that the firearm use was accurate.
“The set of parabolic mirrors used in the film is based in Mohave, California. It looked like something out of a James Bond scene. The facility is vast with 2,500 mirrors, around 30 feet high and 200 yards long.”
Litvak presents a vivid take on the American West with a twist that transforms the familiar terrain of desert landscapes, iconic saloons, and sweeping panoramas into a distinctly modern experience. Describing his vision as a “neo-Western,” Salvador explains how the film borrows classic Western tropes, not through the old motifs of horses and covered wagons, but by embracing elements that define the West in 2024.
Shot over an intense 20 days, Guns and Moses captures a region where past and present clash in surprising ways. Power lines stretch over deserts once untamed, and families drive through arid roads in minivans. His choice of setting breathes new life into the genre, challenging viewers to see how the values and themes of Westerns—justice, resilience, and survival—resonate in a landscape altered by time but still holding an undeniable, rugged spirit.
Neal McDonough, Christopher Lloyd from Back to the Future, and Dermot Mulroney appear in Guns and Moses.
(L) David Finkel, Director of AJFF and (R) Sal Litvak, Director of Guns and Moses. Photo Credit: Elise Krentzel
About Austin Jewish Film Festival (AJFF) The Austin Jewish Film Festival, now in its 22nd year, presents the best Jewish films from the U.S. and worldwide to entertain and educate the Greater Austin community. It also provides complementary programs to enhance the cinematic experience
The festival runs from October 31 through November 15. For more information visit:
https://austinjff.org/event-grid/?_filter_sort=title For this year’s AJFF sizzle reel check out https://vimeo.com/1014649175