How an Unlikely Yiddish Indie Became A24's First Foreign Language Acquisition

The No Film School Podcast

Yiddish is a language developed among the Jewish population of Central Europe in the 9th century as a mix of their Biblical Hebrew, and the German and other modern languages of the day. Before World War II, it was spoken by upwards of 13 million people. Today, in the US, it is estimated to only be spoken by less than 200,000. The scarcity of spoken Yiddish today makes it an especially unusual choice for the script written by American director and native English speaker Joshua Z. Weinstein on his new film “Menashe.” And that wasn’t the only—ahem—unorthodox choice that was made. The movie was filmed with almost all untrained actors from within an insular ultra-orthodox Jewish neighborhood in Brooklyn, and the script was developed alongside its star, a man who had never seen a movie in a theater. Perhaps even more surprising is that the feature not only made it into this year’s Sundance Film Festival, but got renowned Executive Producer Chris Columbus on board just before the event, and afterwards landed a deal with A24, which distributed last year’s biggest indie hit, “Moonlight.” Editor-in-Chief Liz Nord met up with Weinstein, along with the film’s cinematographer and co-producer Yoni Brook, and lead actor Menashe Lustig, at Sundance just after the film premiered. They discuss the unique production, camera techniques, and their unlikely success in making a film about a widowed man trying to convince his traditional community that he is capable of caring for his young son.

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