Nestled in a verdant gap in the Pyrénées, a picture-perfect village proudly possesses a legend, that of Pierre and Claire, a shepherd and farm girl thwarted in love. In Sandra Kogut's Adiu Monde, or Pierre and Claire's Story, this town's fable exists as oral tradition, never really solidifying, yet the love story lingers with the tenacity of fond gossip. Fascinated by the fact of fable, Kogut, a Brazilian artist based in Paris, engages the townspeople in recounting the tale: butchers, mechanics, innocent passersby share chapters of this diffuse legend. Elegant restagings, using actual shepherds and actual farm girls, penetrate to the core of cultural ownership. Song of Galilee reveals a strange occurrence in Safed, a small rural town in the mountainous region of northern Israel just minutes from the farm where director Daniel Wachsman lives with his four children. When a body is found in a nearby cave, Wachsman begins a much-resisted inquiry. The police deem the mysterious death a suicide, but doubts linger, especially when it is revealed that all the prime suspects are members of the Pashor family in the Galilee. Legend has it that the Pashors' ancient ancestors were Levites who were charged with guarding the Second Temple in Jerusalem; several of the Levites vanished along with the treasury. As Wachsman presses on, what he discovers is ancient and life threatening, perhaps a conspiracy tied to mystical blood connections. Song of Galilee is more a wake-up call than a song.-Steve Seid