'Next Year In Jerusalem'
released on video, the film is
being distributed nationally by
Water Bearer Films, which sup-
plied half its $10,000 cost.
t the beginning of Next Year
Nahmod charged the rest to his
in Jerusalem, Emanuel, a 25-
credit card.
year-old Orthodox Jewish
At its weakest moments, the
man, walks down the street
project
shows the limitations of
in his Brooklyn neighborhood and
its
scale
— some of the dialogue,
passes a young, muscular street tough.
especially
from the secondary
Emanuel focuses his gaze on the
characters, is unbelievably awk-
leather-jacketed young man, who, not
ward, and not all the laughs are
appreciating the attention, begins
intentional.
shouting Jewish insults and tells him to
A small role played by the
get lost. As Emanuel slinks away, the
director,
a self-described failed
man adds a last insult: "Jewish faggot!"
actor,
seems
to serve no point
Back at home, Emanuel tries to
except
to
get
him onto the
squirm his way out of an arranged
screen. At one point, we get
marriage to a pleasant-enough
everyone's favorite amateur film
Orthodox woman, Rivka Hirsch, the
pratfall, the boom microphone
rabbi's daughter. This marriage isn't
dropping into the shot.
what he wants, he tells her. She asks
But for whatever Next Year in
what he does want. His mind flashes
does wrong, Nahmod
Jerusalem
to the image of the sneering street guy.
gets
the
human
elements right.
This moment is the first time
He
does
a
good
job of telling
Emanuel acknowledges to himself that
what
is
really
a
conventional
story
traces
Next
Year
in
Jerusalem
he is gay.
about children trying to find their
his gradual coming out — to himself
identity and struggling
and to his family.
with
the realization
His guide in this awak-
that
they
are not who
ening process is Shai
their
parents
want
Bernstein, a gay man who
them
to
be.
has severed familial ties
At the screening I
and long ago abandoned
attended,
the man next
his religious upbringing.
to
me
was
crying at the
Shai lives in Greenwich
end, and I am sure he
Village and is known to
was not alone.
his friends, and lovers, as
The explicit portray-
Charlie Burns — a gentile
al
of
gay relationships
version of his given name.
places
this movie clear-
When Shai finally gives
ly
in
the
world of
in to his mother's pressure
fringe
independent
and attends his first family
films of the 1990s —
seder in years, the plot really
Emanuel's deflowering
kicks in. There he is reunit- David Nahmod: "Both
scene goes on so long,
ed with Emanuel (their
gays and Jews have a long the soundtrack needed
mothers are close friends),
history of oppression."
two songs to score it.
and the two begin a rela-
But the story line is as
tionship in which each
basic
and
simple
as that of The Jazz
serves as the other's mentor.
Singer -- we even get an Orthodox
As Shai teaches Emanuel how to
father declaring at one point that "his
live as a gay man, Emanuel later recip-
son is dead to him."
rocates by bringing Shai back to prac-
One of the strongest scenes is a
ticing Judaism.
dinner
that takes place toward the end
Next Year in Jerusalem is the work
of
the
film
between Shai and his wid-
of 43-year-old writer/director David
owed,
babushka-wearing
mother
Nahmod, who grew up in a Sephardic
(played,
in
an
attention-getting
bit of
community in Brooklyn. Recently
casting, by former '70s porn star
Georgina Spelvin).
Bill Syken is a freelance writer
Shai rarely comes home anymore,
based in New York.
BILL SYKEN
Special to The Jewish News
A
3/26
1999
96 Detroit Jewish News
Filmmaker
David Nahmods
coming-of-age
drama, newly
available on video,
tells the story of two
young men who
struggle with their
Jewish and sexual
identities.
but at this point his mother seems to
know on some level that her son might
be gay. She asks, hopefully, whether he
is seeing any women, and Shai tells her
"no" in a way that suggests it's not
because he can't get a date.
She pushes ahead, suggesting he
should at least try to go out with a
young woman she knows. At that
point the dinner falls to pieces. Shai
walks out angry, but without telling
his mother the truth.
This sort of denial is in part what
inspired the director to make the film.
At the screening he talked about AIDS
among Orthodox Jews and how the
failure to acknowledge the Orthodox
community's gay population leads to
ignorance about the disease.
But while physical health is one
issue, the mental cost of denial is real-
ly what the movie is about.
One strange thing about the cast is
that almost none of its actors is
Jewish, and in many cases it seems
pretty obvious. Shai is played Peter J.
Byrnes, who resembles Kevin Bacon,
while Daniel Nardicio acts the role of
Emanuel. He brings to mind the
geeky "Goldstein" character from the
television show "The White Shadow."
The film's score was written and
performed by Richard Barone of the
'80s band the Bongos, and Jill Sobule
contributes a song to the soundtrack.
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They make cameo appearances as an
Orthodox Jewish couple.
Also appearing in brief roles are
Barbra Streisand impersonator Steven
Brinberg and soap star Louis
Edmonds ("Dark Shadows" and "All
My Children"), who plays Shai's
grandfather.
Nahmod said the story is a pure fic-
tion, even though -he is gay and
rebelled from his Orthodox upbring-
ing. If there's any one scene that rings
especially true to him, though, it is the
dinner between Shai and his mother.
Nahmod said he hasn't spoken to
his parents in years. Their falling out,
he said, was over his rejection of reli-
gion; and he has never discussed with
them that he is gay. That is why film-
ing the dinner between Shai and his
mother, where the truth is never told
but a relationship is severed, was an
emotionally difficult scene for
Nahmod to do.
Such honest moments in Next Year
in Jerusalem are what make you
inclined to forgive the occasional
clunky line or falling of the boom. [11
Next Year in Jerusalem is avail-
able through Water Bearer Films
at a cost of $39.95 plus shipping
and handling. (800) 551-8304.
'Ms