By Jack Forman
SAN DIEGO — Joel Fendelman is a young independent film producer and director whose feature-length documentary film Needle Through Brick (which is about the development of Kung Fu) recently won the Silver Palm award at the Mexico International Film Festival.
In making his first feature film David, Fendelman has drawn on his experiences growing up in Miami and over the past year has immersed himself in the culture of Orthodox Jews and religious Muslims who live in the adjacent Brooklyn neighborhoods of Bay Ridge and Boro Park; it is here that 11-year old Daoud (David) lives with his older and younger sister, loving mother, and devout father who is an imam in the local mosque.
Daoud’s life almost totally revolves around his religious study, prayer, and extensive responsibilities teaching younger children in the mosque. One day, in the park separating his neighborhood from the homes of Orthodox Jews, he looks longingly and curiously at a group of four Orthodox Jewish kids his age talking to one another, reading and studying the Talmud and playing before they depart for their yeshiva. When they leave, he notices that one of the boys has inadvertently left his Tikkun Meir Siddur on the bench the boys were sitting on. He decides to return it but is unable to catch up to the boys, so he leaves what he thinks is the Siddur in the mailbox of the yeshiva. He soon realizes he has instead left a copy of the Quran that his uncle entrusted him with. The next day he enters the yeshiva to return the book he found and to try to retrieve his Quran copy (which he eventually gets back), but the principal mistakes him for a student at the yeshiva; when Daoud is asked what his name is, he responds with “David” and is put into the same class attended by the boys he saw in the park. After the class, the Jewish kids befriend him, thinking he is a Jew. This is Daoud’s first experience with peer camaraderie, believe it or not – and he does not want it to end. So he pretends to be Jewish and soon develops a close friendship with Yoav, the boy whose Siddur he has.
The film is also focused on portraying vividly the life of Daoud’s family, who experience conflicts and crises resulting from the pressures to acculturate into American society. His strict father is seen gradually losing his control over Daoud’s life and that of his older sister who has just won a scholarship to Stanford University, and while this is happening, Daoud’s mother is clearly torn between supporting her husband’s decisions and her own more expansive views about what is good for her children. Even Daoud’s father is seen having second thoughts about how he treats his son and daughter. The themes of acculturation and assimilation as they affect family dynamics will certainly resonate with many Jewish viewers of the movie.
Daoud is very guilty and conflicted about his pretending to be Jewish, but he so much wants to be like other kids that he can’t help himself. When the truth finally emerges, Daoud is left to sort things out, but clearly his short friendship with Yoav has left its ambiguous mark on him and on his Jewish pals with whom he has developed a short-lived relationship.
Muatasem Mishal as Daoud and Moz Jobrani as his father shine in the film’s leading roles. Fendelman used Muslim and Jewish actors and actresses from Bay Ridge’s Arab and Muslim community and Boro Park’s Orthodox Jewish community to play many of the supporting acting roles, and they have given the film a credibility that otherwise might be lacking because some viewers could question the plausibility of the film’s action.
David highlights the many similarities between the two religious communities at the same time that the film portrays the undercurrents of tension and separation which permeate the two cultures.
The film has won the 2011 Brooklyn International Film Festival Audience Award and awards from a Montreal Film Festival and in November from a Napa Valley Film Festival, and it most likely will win other awards as it goes into more general distribution. It’s a winner worth 4.5 stars of a possible 5.
David will be screened February 14, at 10:30 a.m. in the JCC Garfield Theater and on February 15, at 4:30 p.m. in the Clairemont Reading Theater.
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Forman is a freelance writer based in San Diego. He may be contacted at jack.forman@sdjewishworld.com