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Absolutely Stunning

[hoopygamer · 10/10 · 8 March 2024]

Beautiful movie, with incredible acting and phenomenal storytelling.

The movie manages to touch some very heavy and complex issues within the Haredi Community, and criticize just what needs to be.

You can tell how personal the entire script is, and the director's storytelling conveys a very intimate and emotional journey through his own life; all of his struggles and challenges are laid out in front of you. And you get to experience them with him all over again.

Left the movie wanting to know and hear more.

Definitely looking forward to see both the director's and the actors' future work.

Absolutely stunning.

The wife is okay after all

[Nozz · 9/10 · 21 May 2024]

I remember the news story on which this movie is based. A shopkeeper in Israel wanted to sell electronics to ultra-Orthodox Jews and although he adjusted the products to their way of life (most notably, no internet access), still he was badly harassed. When I saw the publicity implying that the movie emphasizes the man's marriage, I was pessimistic. What does his wife have to do with anything, other than broadening the audience demographic? But the character of the wife works very well in this version of the story. The wife is more conservative than the shopkeeper, and she seems to symbolize the affinity that he retains for Orthodox Judaism despite the fact that the rabbis in this movie are all (alas) portrayed as ogres. Although Roy Nik in the leading role and Dror Keren as his rabbinical nemesis both receive acting awards-- and everyone loves Dror Keren, but aside from wearing a beard, he didn't have to exert himself greatly in this role-- I would have nominated Yarden Toussia-Cohen's performance as the wife. She does a great deal to hold the movie together, across some bumpy transitions as the shop abruptly becomes more and more successful and the shopkeeper abruptly seems more savvy while becoming less and less conformist in his dress and behavior (as does she, without a whole lot of explanation, in his wake).

On cinematic grounds I can't but recommend the movie, but gee, in a scene with a whole committee of rabbis, couldn't the script have had one rabbi standing up for fair play in commerce and for and technological progress? Did they all have to be benighted Luddites?

Heavy-Handed Tedium

[phljrhgsu · 3/10 · 19 February 2024]

At the beginning, this film promises to present a nuanced study of cultural tensions within the closed, but surprisingly complicated and diverse Israeli Haredi community.

Unfortunately, it ultimately morphs into a loud, manipulative caricature of a violent struggle between corrupt, irrational community leaders and a bullheaded first-time entrepreneur who should have known better.

Any commentary on the tensions between tradition and innovation, between conservatism and modernity, are lost in the bloodbath. Benny Fredman clearly shouldn't be directing traffic, let alone a movie with such delicate subject matter.