Aran Patinkin

 

"Kosher Gafilte-Film" is a film about the ultra orthodox Israeli Jews, but they themselves will never see the film because an orthodox Jew doesn't go to the movies and doesn't own a video, a TV or a DVD. For many years it was prohibited for the ultra orthodox Jews to be filmed or photographed or to express themselves freely in any media. Since the slow infiltration of computers into their homes their children have been more and more exposed to secular values. Today there is a wave of demand for "Kosher" films.  The compact disc industry for the orthodox Jewish community started about five years ago as a response to these needs, and at the same time as a response to the need to avoid watching secular television and secular video films.

 

The film "Kosher Gafilte-Film" follows the preparation of an Orthodox Jewish film.  The producer and director of the film is Shalom Isenbach. Shalom comes from a famous Jewish Orthodox family living in the Mea Sharim neighborhood of Jerusalem (The Mecca of Orthodox Jewry). Shalom is a typical example of a widespread phenomenon in the orthodox Jewish community: he left his Yeshiva at a young age and enjoyed the secular pleasures, especially the free sex.  He says that when he was a boy he didn't know what the feminine genitals looked like and his curiosity almost drove him crazy.  After a few years he settled down, got married and started getting back to his Jewish Orthodox roots, not out of religious motives but because he recognized the value of this social structure for building a family and raising kids. 

 

The documentary film follows the process of producing a film named "Mama, when are you coming back?" which comically tells the story of a young Chasidic father whose wife just gave birth, in Mazal Tov, to their fifth thriving and kicking child. The (unseen) wife went with the newborn to a rest house and left the helpless father with the remaining four youngsters. The film humorously portrays the father's inability to run the house; he has difficulties in cooking, doing the laundry and changing diapers. Only then does he learn to appreciate his wife's roll. 

 

No doubt that the “making of” a Chasidic film is a colorful and juicy drama. But there is a more serious aspect to this film; "Kosher Gafilte-Film" will subtly expose a grave transformation that is taking place in the Jewish Orthodox world today. The great walls of strict tradition are slowly collapsing to the sound of the new horns of the media. The great waves of Internet and mass media are shaking this very well preserved and guarded society. There are many signs of the revolution to come. The new film industry is only one. Newspapers and magazines are much more promiscuous and allow for more open dialog and criticism. Advertising in the Orthodox world became much more provocative and wild than it used to be. The Orthodox audience is expecting to be entertained by semi-Rock stars like in the secular world.  The Rabbinical authorities find it more and more difficult to limit the new freedom of speech. It is as if they have  confined a spring for many years and suddenly it bursts out with multiple powers.