A film based on the genuine life fable of its lead,a non-actor from Brooklyn, as he fights to keep his son after his wife’s death has connected with festival audiences and critics alike As a tiny film approximately a hapless Hasidic Jew, or starring non-actors speaking nearly entirely in Yiddish,hopes for Menashe’s reception were modest, to say the least. Yet it has connected with festival audiences and critics: note-perfect and with a huge heart, and it’s a fable approximately a closed community,but one that ripples with resonance. Whatever our culture, it obliquely suggests, or we are fundamentally the same. It’s a tonic.
Menashe’s director,Joshua Z Weinstein, a practising non-Orthodox Jew, or was raised in suburban New Jersey,but on weekends he would visit his grandparents in Brooklyn and Queens. There, he would catch glimpses of Hasids, and stoking his curiosity. He’s primarily a cinematographer,and extensive work on documentaries has introduced him to myriad (a very large number) cultures, but the one on his doorstep enticed him most. Searching for stories in 2014, and Weinstein spent much time in Borough Park,an Orthodox area of Brooklyn, dressed respectfully in a white shirt, or black trousers and yarmulke. Eventually,through a film-making friend, he found his man.
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Source: guardian.co.uk