46 | AUGUST 3 • 2023 

N

ew York City-based producers 
and filmmakers Amnon Carmi 
and Benjamin Ducoff have 
played the Israeli card game Yaniv for 
years, but one day imagined a twist on 
the popular pastime. “What if there 
was an underground card game where 
Chasidic Jews were playing Yaniv?” 
Ducoff, whose mother is a Huntington 
Woods native, mulled over during a run.
The idea stuck, and the story for Yaniv 

— Carmi and Ducoff’s first feature-
length film — unfolded in just five weeks. 
The lifelong friends, who grew up in a 
Cleveland neighborhood, dove straight 
into writing and soon brought to life the 
concept that had so quickly resonated 
and developed. Now, Yaniv will screen at 
the Maple Theater for the very first time 
on Aug.10 at 8 p.m.
Yaniv follows the dark and comedic 
tale of two Bronx high school teachers 
unsuccessfully trying to fund a spring 
musical, who like many educators, 
struggle to get funding for their 

programs. Instead, they aim to raise the 
money in a different way: by infiltrating 
an underground card game run by a 
group of Chasidic Jews and ultimately 
winning the prize money.
The teachers themselves are secular 
but dress the part and talk the talk to 
blend in with the Chasidic card-playing 
community. “Due to budget cuts, the 
funding is cut off and he’s desperate to 
make this film,” Ducoff, 30, who is a 
teacher himself, explains of the main 
character Barry Bernstein, who he plays 
in the film. “He resorts to cheating at an 
underground card game.”
Bernstein, who learned about 
underground Yaniv clubs from his 
grandfather, wasn’t a total stranger to the 
scene, but had just enough knowledge 
to avoid raising suspicion. Then, Carmi, 
30, says, “Everything falls apart” — and 
“all hell breaks loose.” The end result is 
a wild, comedic ride that he explains has 
serious, heartwarming elements, and an 
unexpected finale to the film.

An advance screening of “Yaniv” will take 
place at the Maple Theater.

ASHLEY ZLATOPOLSKY CONTRIBUTING WRITER

ARTS&LIFE
FILM

Dark Jewish Comedy Explores 
Underground Card Game World

Amnon Carmi and Benjamin Ducoff

A scene from 
the film Yaniv

