Film Featuring All-Hasidic Cast Receives Rave Reviews At Sundance
Dreams of becoming a movie star are probably few and far between among Hasidim. Many Hasidic communities tend to be distrustful of the secular and going to the movies or watching television is often forbidden or, at least, heavily discouraged.
That’s why Menashe Lustig, a Hasidic performer who hails from New Square, New York, is making waves across film festival circuits as the star and namesake of “Menashe”. The film, which received rave reviews at Sundance and the Berlin Film Festival and currently stands at 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, is based on the real life of Lustig, focusing on his divorce and his community’s ruling that he could not live with his son until he remarried.
Although Lustig is an experienced member of the tiny Hasidi film community that exists, “Menashe” is his first festival film — and likely his last.
A profile of Lustig in Vulture reads:
Lustig yearns to act more, but he and {Joshua} Weinstein [the film’s director] both fear what might happen if he takes the wrong project… They say a TV show approached Lustig about taking a role, but both of them felt it was too exploitative and stereotypical… Lustig has avoided excommunication so far, but that that’s due to the lack of outright lampooning of Hasidic life in “Menashe”.
Weinstein, who is not Hasidic, spent hours interviewing Lustig so that he could accurately depict his Hasidic way of life. All of the actors he cast, save for one, are Hasidic and many of them had never set foot inside a movie theater before the film’s Sundance debut.
You can watch a clip from the YouTube history that gave Lustig his start below:
“Menashe” will open theatrically on Friday.
You can read the entire profile here.
Becky Scott is the editor of The Schmooze. Follow her on Twitter, @arr_scott
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we need 500 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Our Goal: 500 gifts during our Passover Pledge Drive!
