One World Cinema

How can a serious topic, like the death of a Hasidic cantor’s wife, be so funny?   Matthew Broderick, plays Albert, a middle aged biology professor at the local community college.  Geza Rohrig, plays Shmuel, a Hasidic cantor who’s wife recently died of cancer.  Shmuel is distraught and his entire life has turned upside down.  He wants answers and he wants them now.  Shmuel is trying to teach his two sons to continue to respect their mother even after she is gone, while his sons continue to search for a dybbuk, or an evil spirit that has entered a living person. The spirit attaches to the soul and possesses a separate personality. Once the spirit has accomplished its goal, it leaves the person.

Shmuel is determined!  He wants to know just how fast his wife’s body will take to decompose, and he will stop at nothing until he gets his answers.  An unlikely friendship develops between two men from two very different backgrounds, cultures, and religions,  when Shmuel goes to the local college to seek out answers from the science professor. The professor is caught off guard and really has no idea how to respond or how to handle “Shmoo’s” obsession with decay, and the extremes he proposes and undertakes in order to learn more about the decomposition process.

Skeptical, Albert goes along with the requests and begins to conduct research on the topic. The two go to all lengths to learn more, meanwhile, they get to know one another better in the process.

Very funny.

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