Parents and parents-in-law come together in the living room – already a difficult situation. The fact that a dead person is lying in the bathroom doesn't make things any easier. Nor does the obligation that the body should be disposed of without, in the process, violating Shabbat dictates. Director and co-screenwriter Daniel Robbins wanted his film to be deeply rooted in his milieu, that of New York's Jews. Shot in an apartment on the Upper West Side, it's about people who are at home in the secular world but also take their faith seriously. And it is to this patchwork of secular and religious life that the conflict between young and old, a sense of knowing it all, defiance, secrecy and self-importance are added – in short, all those elements that go to make up family life. Robbins himself admits to having drawn inspiration from Ernst Lubitsch, Billy Wilder and Woody Allen, Mike Nichols, Nora Ephron, and Neil Simon, and he has done so with some success. It's a whirlwind of a film that portrays pernickety attitudes with no small amount of affection and yet, in all its lightning-fast exaggeration, manages to remain grounded in reality.
The intention however isn't to depict a conflict between secular and religious experience, but rather to reflect on how one might go about connecting the two, and the building of bridges, even if it sometimes means having to engage in a little equivocation. As Robbins remarked in an interview with the Israeli daily Ha'aretz:
„The idea was to make a Judaism-positive film that shows faith could add beauty and meaning to life […] the characters aren't trying to get away from Judaism and self-actualize. Their goal is to figure out how it can fit intot heir lives, and how their slight dierences can work within the family."
Interview with Daniel Robbins 23.1.2025 (Haaretz)
Text: Bernd Buder
After both screenings there will be a Q&A with director Daniel Robbins and Co-writer Zack Weiner.
