Blue and white - and black

Although many haredim (ultra-Orthodox Jews) don't go to the movies on principle, they are now a force to be reckoned with on screen. A recent spate of television shows and movies has put haredi characters front and center. The tag line for Shababnikim, one of the new haredi television shows, is “Black is the new black,” and that could be the slogan for this trend in Israeli entertainment. Although the truth is that while they may favor black clothes, the stories of the haredim, as they are portrayed on screen, are anything but black and white. The two most prominent recent depictions of the haredim are on the small screen – Shababnikim, which is on the HOT cable network, and Keshet's Kipat Barzel, the official English title of which is Commandments, but which is sometimes translated as The Iron Yarmulke. The first season of Shababnikim recently ended; Kipat Barzel is into its second season. Shababnikim is a lively comedy about a group of haredi hell-raisers, while Kipat Barzel is a drama about haredi soldiers. Imagine Entourage with black hats and you've got the basic vibe of Shababnikim, which was created by veteran Israeli television producer Danny Paran and Eliran Malka, a graduate of Jerusalem's Ma'aleh School of Film and Television, which caters to observant students. It follows three rebellious yeshiva students and one very serious one as they go about their business, which includes many pranks and stunts, like finding a way to sneak onto the Internet when the head of their yeshiva forbids them from going online. The series opens with a rabbi lecturing his students about some guys who dared to go skiing – a serious infraction, in his opinion. His fury rises as he asks how this transgression should be punished, and he gets his comeuppance in a moment of unambiguous joy for the students – the roof collapses on him – which sets the tone for the entire series. Daniel Gad, Israel Atias, Omer Perlman Striks and Ori Laizerouvich star in the show. Paran, who has been in the forefront of most TV trends for the past 30 years, said, “When you create drama, you become God, you create a world.” When Malka, who studied in yeshiva as well as at film school, came to him with the idea for Shababnikim, he jumped at the chance. Its groundbreaking mixture of irreverent humor and religion appealed to him. “You have to be open, to always think the opposite” of what everyone else is doing, he said. Among Paran's credits is Arab Labor, a similarly original and critically acclaimed show about Israeli Arabs. Paran created what he said was the first haredi television show, Ha Hatzer (The Grand Rabbi), about a rabbi and his family, in 2003. Kipat Barzel, a more traditional show, follows the pattern of the classic army movie, where a bunch of ragtag recruits get to show what they're made of. The difference here, of course, is that they are from the haredi community, and they face anger and ostracism from their families and communities, since most haredim don't serve in the army. Until now, haredim were routinely allowed to opt out of army service, but in recent years the government has proposed to start drafting them into the military, the prospect of which has inspired huge demonstrations throughout the country by haredim who oppose military service. Episodes of Kipat Barzel were broadcast just as these demonstrations were making headlines. One character from Kipat Barzel could be on Shababnikim as well, Avram (Roy Nik), a criminal who ends up in the army by chance when he is fleeing accomplices he has cheated. Other characters include Ya'acov (Dolev Mesika), whose father is disgusted with him when he becomes a soldier, and Gur Arye (Avi Mazliah), a former “hilltop youth” activist. The series was created by Avner Bernheimer, Raya Shuster and Alon Zingman. These shows follow the success of Shtisel from YES, which was cocreated by Yehonatan Indursky and Ori Elon. Shtisel, a family drama set in a haredi neighborhood in Jerusalem, tells the story of a father (Doval'e Glickman), who is a stern traditionalist, and his artistic and romantic son (Michael Aloni). The series features many of Israel's best actors, including Ayelet Zurer, Sasson Gabbai, Hadas Yaron, Zohar Shtrauss, Shira Haas and Neta Riskin. The American version of the series, which will be set in Brooklyn, is being produced for Amazon by Friends cocreator Marta Kauffman. THE SUCCESS of these series raises the question of whether this is simply the latest fad, or whether the haredim are taking their place as part of the central Israeli narrative. “Everyone is looking for a story that hasn't been told,” said Neta Ariel, the director of the Ma'aleh School. While being observant is not a requirement of study there, religion is important to most Ma'aleh students, who often thank the Almighty in the credits of their graduation films. She firmly believes that the trend toward portraying haredi life on screen is simply a part of the growing democratization of the Israeli film industry, where more and more people from different groups – including Israeli Arabs, recent immigrants and gays – are telling their stories. “All the different religious communities are pieces of a puzzle, and when they tell their stories, it opens up a lot of possibilities,” she said. “Everyone is coming into the yard now, and they're here to stay.” The breakthrough television series depicting Orthodox Jews, Srugim (the title of which literally translates to crocheted kippot, the headgear favored by young Orthodox Jews), created by Ma'aleh graduates Eliezer (Laizy) Shapiro and Chava Divon, is a wildly popular drama about young National Religious Jerusalemites that ran for three seasons, starting in 2008. But the worlds of Modern Orthodox Jews and the haredi community are not always separate, especially in Jerusalem, and the show featured a number of haredi characters. “The ultra-Orthodox community is a continuum, and that is what is reflected on screen,” said Hedva Goldschmidt, the managing director of Go2Films, a Jerusalem- based company that specializes in distribution, marketing and exhibition of top Israeli documentaries, fiction films and TV series as well as international films with Jewish-related content. “If you look at the progression from Srugim to Shababnikim, you will see the changing point of view and the whole spectrum of the religious community,” she said, pointing out that this world encompasses all types of observance, from Modern Orthodox to variations described by a number of acronyms – such as datlash (former National Religious) and hardal (National Religious Jews who are moving closer to ultra-Orthodoxy) – and finally to the haredi camp, which includes Jews raised in secular homes who have become Orthodox. “The issue of identity is front and center now” for all groups in Israeli society, Goldschmidt said. OVER THE past few years, religiously observant film directors and movies on religious themes have become an increasingly important part of the film industry. In decades past, religious characters could often be seen as the butt of jokes in silly comedies, such as the Kuni Lemel series. But starting nearly 20 years ago, Israelis started making serious films about religious Jews. Although most filmmakers are secular, Israel's most prominent director, Joseph Cedar, whose films Beaufort (2007) and Footnote (2011) were nominated for Best Foreign-Language Film Oscars, is Modern Orthodox. Stories about observant Jews have been a central part of his work, and he has focused on Jews from a background similar to his. His first feature, Time of Favor (better known by its Hebrew title, Hahesder), from 2000, is about young religious Jews in the West Bank who study in an army-affiliated yeshiva and are influenced by their rabbi (the late Assi Dayan, cast against type to great effect) to undertake a plot to bomb the Temple Mount. His second film, the 2004 Campfire, stayed firmly within the National Religious camp, as it told the story of a widow and her two daughters who plan to move to the West Bank in the early '80s. His fourth feature, Footnote, focused on the rivalry between a Modern Orthodox father and son, and was quite successful in making these characters accessible to mainstream audiences around the world. His most recent film, the English-language Norman, set in New York and starring Richard Gere, has a key subplot about the lead character's schemes to raise money for an Orthodox synagogue in New York. One of the first serious depictions of haredim on screen was Amos Gitai's Kadosh (1999), about a childless haredi couple and the woman's sister, who rebels against her background. Gitai, a filmmaker revered in Europe but whose films draw more criticism here, is secular in terms of his life and background. In Kadosh, Gitai was critical of the injustices in religious life – the woman is blamed for the couple's infertility, when it is really her husband who has a medical problem, and he is pressured to divorce her – but this critique was an outsider's point of view. The characters spoke in hushed, solemn tones, as if they had stumbled in from an Ingmar Bergman movie, while anyone who has spent any time in a haredi neighborhood knows that these streets are pretty noisy. A secular director who has been more successful at portraying haredi life on film is Avi Nesher, who, during the early part of his career, was firmly identified with the modern youth culture of Tel Aviv, through such films as Dizengoff 99 (1979). In recent years, Nesher has become fascinated with haredi life. His first film set in this milieu was the 2007 The Secrets, which told the story of two young haredi women at a seminary in Safed who fall in love, one of whom was played by Ania Bukstein, who has gone on to have a small role in Game of Thrones. Nesher cowrote the film with Hadar Galron, an observant actress/playwright from London. The Secrets was recently turned into a play that is being performed at Beit Lessin Theater in Tel Aviv. Galron went on to write and star in the 2008 film Bruriah, by Avraham Kushnir, about a woman questioning women's roles in the Orthodox community. She is also one of the creators of the new television series Harmon, about a polygamous cult. Nesher's interest in haredim was not a passing phase, and he went on to make The Wonders (2013), an offbeat drama about an artist in Jerusalem's Musrara neighborhood who befriends a haredi rabbi who heads a cult and has been locked away by some unscrupulous associates. Nesher is currently in postproduction on a drama called The Other Story, about a secular father whose daughter becomes haredi. A stickler for authenticity, Nesher has worked with observant advisers on all these films. The Other Story will be released later this year. Other well-known films about haredi life include Haim Tabakman's Eyes Wide Open (2009), about a gay romance between two observant men, and two films by Avishai Sivan, The Wanderer (2010) and Tikkun (2015), both about young men who feel lost and question their roles. A KEY milestone in the history of haredi cinema was the 2004 film by Gidi Dar, Ushpizin, which starred and was written by Shuli Rand, an actor from an observant background, who rebelled and became secular, then embraced ultra-Orthodoxy. Rand crafted a compelling story about a former criminal who becomes haredi and has to cope when two of his former associates show up at his Jerusalem apartment and demand that he and his wife host them in their sukka, a request they feel they are religiously compelled to grant. The movie was made with the cooperation of many haredim in the Jerusalem neighborhood where it was filmed, and with the blessing of Rand's rabbi. This rabbi came to the premiere in Jerusalem and stood onstage reciting passages from the work of Rabbi Nahman of Breslov, to the bewilderment of the mostly secular audience at the Jerusalem Cinematheque. Jewish law was followed so carefully during the making of the film that Rand's wife, Michal Bat-Sheva Rand, played his on-screen wife, because it would not have been modest for him to act with another woman. Ushpizin was the beginning of the phenomenon of haredi directors telling their own stories on film. My Father My Lord, by David Volach, about the curious child of a stern rabbi (again played by Dayan) won the top prize in the world dramatic category at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2007 and was inspired by his experiences growing up in a haredi family. BUT THE most surprising and successful haredi filmmaker is Rama Burshtein. Burshtein, who grew up secular and studied at Jerusalem's Sam Spiegel Film and Television School, became haredi as an adult. Although in the secular world there is a lot of controversy about the status of women in this community, Burshtein's heroines are strong, active and confident. Her first film, Fill the Void (2012), won seven Ophir Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Screenplay, as well as a number of international awards, including Best Actress for its star, Hadas Yaron, at the Venice Film Festival. It tells the story of a young woman (Yaron), whose sister dies in childbirth and whose widowed brother-in-law wants to marry her. This story, of love clouded by tragedy, is told with great conviction and nuance. Burshtein, a born storyteller, switched gears with her second feature, The Wedding Plan (2016), a comedy about a haredi woman who, when her fiancé breaks off their engagement, refuses to give up and insists that she will find a groom by the wedding date. Michal (Noa Koler), the heroine, is a quirky young woman who grew up secular and makes a living bringing animals such as snakes to children's birthday parties. She passionately wants to marry and doesn't see herself as a victim of an oppressive system. Eventually, she draws the attention of several men, including a rock star dabbling in ultra-Orthodoxy, and this film's wry perspective on him and all its characters makes it an effective social comedy. It won three Ophir Awards, including Best Screenplay and Best Actress, and, more surprisingly, earned nearly $1.5 million playing around the world. DIRECTORS SUCH as Burshtein, who grew up secular, “take all the power of the secular world and all the power of religion to tell their stories,” said Goldschmidt. It's likely that Burshtein is just the beginning of a new wave of haredi women filmmakers, since the Ma'aleh School started a special part-time course several years ago for women in this community. Ariel says the school opened the course in response to demand from these women. In this community, many women work to support their families while their husbands study Torah, and women wanted to get into the fields of producing movies and videos for celebrations such as bar mitzvas and weddings. There has long been a thriving industry of gender-segregated movies aimed at the haredi community – and seen by virtually no one outside of it – but Ariel says the women who studied at Ma'aleh generally aimed for earning a living through making short, commemorative films for local events. Several of these students have switched to full-time studies, and Ariel said that the variety of the short films they have produced is dazzling, everything from one woman's story about her daughter, who left the community and had a child with a member of the Black Hebrews sect from Dimona, to a film about a woman, tired of working crazy hours in hi-tech, who invests a huge amount of money in a machine that removes unwanted hair and opens a salon, to the story of a student's grandfather who opened a soup kitchen and lived for years after he was told he would die in a few months. “Part of their studies is learning professionalism,” said Ariel. “You have to do high-quality work, and it doesn't matter if you have 10 kids. You still have to do good work.” While we wait to see the movies these women eventually make, it's worth keeping in mind Paran's words about one of the pleasures of working on Shababnikim: “People see it and tell me, 'I changed my mind about haredim. I like them.' It shows our power to change people through communication.”

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