Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By richards on January 30, 2015

Giroux was living on a street that is heavily populated by Hasidic Jews and the presence of those neighbours got him wondering about the culture that was so foreign to him.

Every day, wed take a caf in the neighbourhood and wed see these women and men walking by and we just didnt know anything about them, said Giroux, in an interview this week in a caf in a part of Outremont that also has a significant Hasidic population. Wed look at a woman and say Wow shes cute. Is it possible for guys like us to fall in love with that woman? And we said Thats a great story. What would happen if a nave French Qubcois guy falls in love with a Hasidic woman?

When he thinks he could (fall in love with a Hasidic woman), interjects Luzer Twersky, a Los Angeles-based actor who grew up in a Hasidic community in Brooklyn and has since left that world far behind.

In Flix et Meira, Twersky plays Shulem, the husband of Meira (Hadas Yaron), the Hasidic woman who has an affair with Flix (Martin Dubreuil), a francophone guy who is trying to come to grips with the death of his father.

Flix is immediately attracted to Meira when he meets her at the local diner but unsurprisingly, she initially rebuffs his advances. But the mutual attraction and interest gradually heats up between the two of them.

Flix et Meira, Girouxs third feature, had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in September and it surprised many by beating out all the homegrown competition, including both Xavier Dolans Mommy and David Cronenbergs Maps to the Stars to win the prize as best Canadian film at TIFF. It also won the Louve dOr as best feature at the Montreal Festival du nouveau cinma and was the closing night film at the New York Jewish Film Festival Thursday.

It opens in cinemas in Montreal Friday, including three copies with English sub-titles. The dialogue is in Yiddish, English and French.

Twersky also acted as a consultant with Giroux, helping make sure he got the details of Hasidic life right, and he admits the story of an Orthodox woman having an affair with a non-Jewish man is not a common one.

Im sure it happens but its incredibly rare, Twersky said. It happens much more that a Hasidic man falls in love with a secular woman. (The women) dont have the freedom of just coming and going. But its not impossible. Im sure it has happened.

The intriguing twist for Twersky personally is that hes playing a character who wants to remain within the Orthodox community, kind of the polar opposite of his own experience. At 22, he decided he wanted out, divorced his Hasidic wife and, the way he tells it, was basically shunned by his community. Oddly enough, Twersky has more in common with Meira than he does with Shulem.

See original here:

Flix et Meira: love across the cultural divide

Category: Hasidic
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