Better Than Pirates Of The Caribbean Two

Two years ago Lee Bretter, whom I had taught the year before, sought me out in the hall and said enthusiastically, “Rabbi, I saw a movie and I thought of you – it’s a movie you’ll love. You have to see it.” So she gave me a disc of this Israeli movie that was being passed around by Israelis here in the U.S. It was a small foreign film that no-one besides Lee and her family’s friends seemed to have heard of it. I borrowed it, and watched it, although it was a bit hard without subtitles. While I wasn’t blown away, I enjoyed this sweet little movie.

One year later a funny thing happened. A buzz was surrounding this movie. It was being shown at schools, shuls, and fundraisers. It played in art theaters in Manhattan. The stars and director were speaking at screenings across America. Articles appeared in papers ranging from The Jewish Week to The New York Times. People were fascinated by a non religious Israeli director’s soft spot for Chasidic Jews. Even more-so people were amazed by the Orthodox angle; the star’s control over the movie. It co-starred his real life wife, it was never shown in Israel on Shabbat, and the Chasidim were played by Chasidim.

What amazed me more than the media blitz was the fact that the Jews who surround me were interested in a kind of movie that they’d have normally never heard of. In a way, I was more comfortable a year ago when this was just another quirky film that I saw and had no-one to talk to about. Suddenly, intellectual snobs that generally run from small sentimental films (or small sentimental anythings) were now caught up in the buzz. If they hadn’t seen it yet, they were going to at their Shul next Saturday night, and they were looking forward – they said.

Now it’s one year after the excitement and the world has returned to it’s course. Many of the people who I had expected to be disinterested in this film have returned to form. They call it a fairy tale in condescending tones, question the film’s ideology, and wonder what the point is.

Yesterday I screened this movie in the school where I work. There were the usual battles; Why another program? Don’t they miss enough class? Why right before vacation? But there was also the added dimension – why this movie? Despite the ubiquitous praise in the general world, people in the tiny world around me needed to criticize this film.

The 160 kids who saw the movie, by and large, loved it. I spoke briefly about it after the screening. And the discussions went on informally throughout the day. The reaction confirmed by belief in this film. It’s a nice, good movie. I wish people would make and watch more of these kinds of movies.

I’m not the only one that thought this was the right time to screen Ushpizin. The JCC of Manhattan will be showing it on Monday night (October 9th) at 7:30.