{"id":84130,"date":"2021-03-03T17:00:50","date_gmt":"2021-03-03T15:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=84130"},"modified":"2021-02-25T07:51:39","modified_gmt":"2021-02-25T05:51:39","slug":"03-00-64","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=84130","title":{"rendered":"Set in Hasidic Brooklyn, Supernatural Horror Film \u2018The Vigil\u2019 Tackles Jewish Mysticism and Faith"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>Set in Hasidic Brooklyn, Supernatural Horror Film \u2018The Vigil\u2019 Tackles Jewish Mysticism and Faith<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/h5>\n

Shiryn Ghermezian<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Lead actor Dave Davis in a scene from \u201cThe Vigil.\u201d Photo: IFC Films.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

In a Jewish-themed supernatural horror film set to debut Friday, a man is confronted by an evil entity as he provides overnight watch to a recently deceased member of his former Hasidic Jewish community.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Vigil,\u201d from IFC Films, addresses themes surrounding Holocaust survivor guilt, the notion of \u201csheydim\u201d (spirits or demons in Jewish mythology), and the struggles some Jews face in fitting into Orthodox communities.<\/span><\/p>\n

The film, which first premiered at the 2019 Toronto Jewish Film Festival, is writer-director Keith Thomas\u2019 feature debut.<\/span><\/p>\n

Thomas has a masters in religious education from Hebrew University College in New York and said that during his studies, he overheard two men at an Orthodox synagogue talking about a shomer (watchman) who abruptly left his \u201cpost\u201d because he was scared. That story inspired the writing of \u201cThe Vigil.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Thomas told\u00a0The Algemeiner<\/em>, \u201cThere\u2019s an old writer\u2019s adage that says, \u2018Write what you know.\u2019 When it came time for me to draft the story of what I envisioned would be my first film as a director, I stepped back and took stock of what might make a unique story. What was it that I knew that I could bring to a project that would make it feel\u2026 different, fresh.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI realized that I had never seen a Jewish horror film that was set in the Hasidic community or that dealt with truly Jewish themes in terms of its lore and construction.\u00a0The\u00a0idea of a shomer facing a demon allowed me to explore\u00a0the\u00a0culture of Hasidic New York and, at\u00a0the\u00a0same time, dig into\u00a0the horror filmmaking that I love.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Vigil\u201d was filmed in various locations around Brooklyn, New York, including Borough Park, Flatbush, Brighton Beach and Williamsburg, with shooting paused on Shabbat. The majority of the film takes place inside the home of the film\u2019s executive producer, who had just purchased the modest house and was about to remodel. The film\u2019s opening scene also features many ex-Hasidic actors and non-actors who have left the community or joined a more modern sect.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFor the\u00a0most part,\u00a0the community was welcoming. Or at least accepting of our presence,\u201d Thomas explained of filming in ultra-Orthodox sections of Brooklyn. \u201cA lot of people were quite curious about what we were doing.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

He recalled one day shooting in Williamsburg when \u201cI looked up at one point (around 2 am, in bitter cold) to see 50 Hasidic men crowded around one of our production monitors watching what we were filming.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The film includes some Yiddish dialogue and all speaking parts in the film are Jewish, as well as Thomas and all the producers. Lead actor Dave Davis, who played Yakov, learned Yiddish for the movie, and supporting actor Menashe Lustig is still a practicing Hasidic Jew \u2014 most well-known for his debut in the critically acclaimed Yiddish film \u201cMenashe.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The film\u2019s co-producers Raphael Margules and J.D. Lifshitz are experienced horror movie producers, but this was their first \u201cJewish horror movie,\u201d Margules said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI want it to leave people shaken and thrilled,\u201d Thomas said about the film. \u201cAt the\u00a0same time, I hope that\u00a0the\u00a0themes explored in\u00a0the film \u2014 guilt,\u00a0the lasting effects of trauma \u2014 resonate beyond the tension and scares. Jews will likely have a deeper appreciation of these thematic elements but I feel as though the\u00a0film\u2019s underlying message is a universal one. At\u00a0the\u00a0end of\u00a0the day, \u2018The Vigil\u2019 is about learning to live with trauma and its aftereffects; while some emotional wounds never truly heal, we can learn to accept them and move forward in our lives.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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Set in Hasidic Brooklyn, Supernatural Horror Film \u2018The Vigil\u2019 Tackles Jewish Mysticism and Faith Shiryn Ghermezian Lead actor Dave Davis in a scene from \u201cThe Vigil.\u201d Photo: IFC Films. In a Jewish-themed supernatural horror film set to debut Friday, a man is confronted by an evil entity as he provides overnight watch to a recently […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[26,24],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84130"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=84130"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84130\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84164,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84130\/revisions\/84164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=84130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=84130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=84130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}