“Menashe” is a quietly captivating film, both for the character at its heart and the Brooklyn Hasidic Jewish community it features as its backdrop.
Without question, its most powerful quality is the authenticity in its depiction of the everyday lives in that community and the emotions of a man who struggles within that community’s tradition-established confines.
What’s it about?
The film’s title character, Menashe (actor Menashe Lustig), finds himself an oddity among those around him. He only has one child, a boy, Rieven (Ruben Nyborski), and he is without his wife, who died a year before.
Menashe wants only to be allowed to raise his son, but he faces significant obstacles. Tradition in Hasidic Jewish communities insists that a proper home for a child must have a mother present; thus, Menashe is expected to give up custody of Rieven to his brother-in-law.
More importantly, Menashe is ill-equipped to be a parent. Though he fiercely loves Rieven, he can barely hold on to a job, lives in a small, unkempt apartment and knows nothing about cooking or maintaining a household.
Still, he resolves to show everyone he can be a good parent, at least for the brief time he’s allowed by his rabbi to care for Rieven leading up to a memorial to remember his wife’s passing. In that time, both father and son learn much, and they take crucial steps towards building a stable life in the eyes of their family and faith.
Filmed in secret
Director Joshua Z. Weinstein shot “Menashe” entirely in secret on location within Borough Park’s Haredi enclave, so many of the people seen in establishing location shots are not actors or paid extras. The film is also almost entirely in Yiddish with English subtitles – both create unequivocal authenticity in terms of the time, place and tenor of the film.
When combined with Weinstein’s use of handheld cameras for shooting, it all looks, sounds, and feels so authentic, in fact, that “Menashe” at times comes across more like a documentary than a work of fiction.
However, all the credit for that authenticity cannot just go to Weinstein. Menashe Lustig delivers a gripping performance as the well-meaning but hapless Menashe, a man-child who desperately wants to take control of his life and fortunes but simply does not have the life skills to do so.
A subtle critique
Why he doesn’t have those life skills is part of the subtle critique the film’s script poses for the community it examines. Their faith dictates that man isn’t meant to be alone, and that women and all that women should provide are the key to a happy, peaceful life.
The practical execution of that belief leads to a situation where men seldom are required to learn anything about caring for themselves outside of a trade to provide for the family’s needs. As one woman puts it during a “date” with Menashe that goes badly, Haredi men go from being coddled by their mothers to being coddled by their wives - in effect, they literally can't be alone.
And why shouldn’t men live that way, the faith would seem to ask? The film puts forth Menashe’s story as counterpoint, and the clash leads in interesting directions.
Worth seeing?
Gentle, thoughtful, and often sweet in its treatment of the father and son relationship within the film, “Menashe” is certainly worth your time at the movies, especially if you enjoy independent film and don’t mind reading subtitles.
It’s also a fascinating and even-handed look at a way of life seldom seen in film. It avoids cliché, judgement and forced sentimentality while also posing fundamental questions, and thus should leave audiences with much to talk about once the credits roll.
Menashe
Starring Menashe Lustig, Ruben Niborsk, Meyer Schwartz, Yoel Weisshaus. Directed by Joshua Z. Weinstein.
Running time: 82 minutes
Rated PG for thematic elements.