Menashe

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Movie
Original title Menashe
Country of production United States
original language Yiddish , English
Publishing year 2017
length 82 minutes
Age rating FSK 6
Rod
Director Joshua Z. Weinstein
script Alex Lipschulz, Musa Syeed, Joshua Z. Weinstein
production Yoni Brook, Royce Brown, Traci Carlson, Daniel Finkelman, Maya Fischer, Gal Greenspan, Alex Lipschulz, David Medford, Nancy Medford, Joshua Z. Weinstein, Melanie Zoey
music Aaron Martin, Dag Rosenqvist
camera Yoni Brook, Joshua Z. Weinstein
cut Scott Cummings
occupation

Menashe Lustig (Menashe), Yoel Falkowitz (Fischel), Ruben Niborsk (Rieven), Meyer Schwartz (Rabbi), Ariel Vaysman (Levi), Yoel Weisshaus (Eizik)

Menashe is a 2017 Yiddish -language American film by documentary filmmaker Joshua Z. Weinstein.

action

Weinstein's feature film debut is about the everyday life of the widower Menashe, who lives in Borough Park, Brooklyn , New York and is a member of a Hasidic community. With his job in a supermarket, the man in his late thirties can hardly make ends meet. Although Menashe appears to be comfortable at social gatherings with the rabbi, he is little respected. This is due to his clumsiness in everyday things, his deviation from the clothing norm and the lack of a housewife who would look after him according to the prevailing role model. His eleven-year-old son Rieven is therefore housed in the large family of his brother-in-law Eizik. Eizik stands out as a critic of Menashes, and Menashe's joint activities with Rieven are a constant source of conflict. The community expects Menashe to remarry; then Rieven would also come back to him. But a conversation initiated by the matchmaker with a widow ends in an embarrassing situation. Menashe wants to raise his son alone and tries to get the rabbi's approval for it.

While Rieven grieves deeply for his mother, Menashe realizes that the arranged marriage he entered into as a young man was not harmonious. His wife Leah wanted more children and died of complications after in vitro fertilization . Menashe decides to mark the season for his wife in his small apartment . Entertaining the guests is a challenge that his friends don't necessarily trust him. As a guest of honor, Menashe serves the rabbi a traditional casserole ( ball ) made by himself . After this celebration Menashe is apparently ready for a re-orientation, as evidenced by a conversation with Eizik and visiting the mikvah is expressed.

Filming

After almost 70 years, Menashe is the first American film that is almost entirely in Yiddish (with English or German subtitles). Each scene was played through in English and then in Yiddish, since Weinstein as a director does not speak Yiddish. The shooting lasted two years and took place on the original locations. The religious life of father and son is included in the plot, both everyday chores ( netilat jadajim , wearing the tallit katan ) and special occasions, such as a gathering at the lag baOmer fire. The film was shot with amateur actors. For the main actor Menashe Lustig, whose role has elements of his own biography, the film work was a personal risk, because it was judged controversially in his community. Some actors and donors withdrew, filming had to be canceled.

criticism

Menashe was presented at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival and received positive reviews and audiences. Sheldon Kirshner ( The Times of Israel ) points out that while Menashe regularly prayed, sang, and drank alcohol with other Hasidic people, ironically, Menashe shared his problems with two Hispanics who work as cleaners in the supermarket. Jenni Zylka ( Tagesspiegel ) acknowledges that the film "opens the door to a locked world". Lukas Stern ( NZZ ) sees the film as a compromise between the quasi-documentary approach to the everyday life of Hasidic Jews in New York and a father-son story.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Sheldon Kirshner: Menashe: The First Yiddish Film In 70 Years. In: The Times of Israel. August 4, 2017. Retrieved March 19, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Marcel Reich: "The film can have serious consequences for me". In: www.welt.de. February 16, 2017, accessed March 17, 2019 .
  3. ↑ Holger Heiland: Menashe. In: kunstundfilm. September 5, 2018, accessed March 18, 2019 .
  4. ↑ a b Alex Godfrey: 'There's enough rabbis - now God wants some actors': how Menashe put Hasidic New York on screen. In: The Guardian. November 30, 2017. Retrieved March 19, 2019 .
  5. ↑ Jenni Zylka: A father fights for his son. In: Der Tagesspiegel. September 15, 2018, accessed March 19, 2019 .
  6. ↑ Lukas Stern: "Menashe" - A father in need. In: NZZ. October 18, 2017, accessed March 18, 2019 .