Winner of the 2004 Best Actor award at the 2004 Israeli Film Academy for writer-star Shuli Rand, director Gidi Dar’s film, Ushpizin (roughly translated to “holy guests”), is a revelatory – and humorous - look at the daily lives of ultra-Orthodox Jews learning, living, and loving in modern-day Israel.
As the festive holiday of Succoth approaches, big-hearted Moshe Bellanga (Rand), a devoutly religious man and a member of the Breslau Chasidim, finds himself broke, a self-described “lump of sadness.” Moshe doesn’t have the Shekels to scrape together a Succah—the temporary dwellings religious Jews stay in during the festival to commemorate the time of the Exodus, and remind the devout that this life, too, is ephemeral. Nor does Moshe have money to purchase the four species upon which religious Jews are commanded to make blessings during the holiday: date-palm branches (lulav), myrtle (hadas), willow (avaros), and, most important, citron (esrog), considered a blessing for having male children.
When Moshe and his wife Malli (Rand’s real-life wife, Michal Bat Sheva Rand) receive an anonymous gift of $1,000 from a local charity organization, they take it as a holiday miracle. Married for five years and still childless, Moshe quickly uses the money to purchase a citron dubbed “the diamond,” believed to be the most perfect citron in all Jerusalem, and decorate a seemingly abandoned Succah.
Meanwhile, just as the holiday begins, Eliyahu Scorpio (Shaul Mizrahi) and his friend Yossef (Ilan Ganani), escape from prison while on furlough, and come looking for their former associate. . . During the festival of Succoth, it is considered a blessing to host guests in the Succah. After making their way to Moshe and Malli, Scorpio and Yossef quickly take up residence in their Succah, terribly abusing the couple’s hospitality by drinking, smoking, playing loud music, and indulging in bestial table manners. Mocking the community’s Hassidic “penguins,” Scorpio and Yossef openly question the sincerity of Moshe’s newfound faith and allude to his violent past.
After fabricating a story in order to rid themselves of their obnoxious houseguests, Moshe and Malli eventually come to see the treatment of their less-than-holy “Ushpizin” as a test of worthiness.
The first film made by members of the ultra-Orthodox community in collaboration with secular filmmakers and aimed at general audiences, Ushpizin introduces Western viewers to organizations, rituals, and customs such as shtreimel (circular fur hats made of fox tails that are worn on the Sabbath or holidays), gemah (voluntary organizations that distribute money and other necessities to the needy within the Orthodox community) and mikveh (ritual baths).
Disarmingly funny, the film also startles in its universality, depicting members of the ultra-Orthodox community in scenes of ordinary living, drinking, smoking, dancing, arguing, reconciling, listening to popular music, and grappling with their faith. In its ultimately celebratory, fable-like quality, Ushpizin is a completely unique moviegoing experience: equal parts Isaac Bashevis Singer and It’s A Wonderful Life.
“The relationship between Gidi and I has two distinct phases,” says actor and screenwriter Shuli Rand of Ushpizin’s director Gidi Dar. “We met a while ago when I was a young actor in the Israeli film and theater community, but Ushpizin was born through my living an Orthodox Jewish life and the desire to make an authentic movie in the Orthodox community.”
Dar and Rand first met eighteen years ago, when the filmmaker was searching for the right actor for his short film, The Poet (1988). After collaborating on The Poet, Rand went on to star in Dar’s debut feature film, Eddie King (1992), a surrealistic feature about an actor who gets entangled in a strange criminal plot. A “radical art movie, shot with just a sketch of a script,” Eddie King won the Bronze Leopard at the Locarno Film Festival and, in Rand’s performance, announced the arrival of one of Israel’s major young actors.
“After Eddie King I remember that every time I visited him, Shuli was becoming a bit more religious,” Dar recounts. “It began with him wearing a yarmulke, and holding big holiday celebrations.” Gradually, Shuli became Orthodox, moved to Jerusalem, and left the acting profession altogether.
“Two weeks after my first son was born, sitting at home with my wife, I suddenly heard shouts from the street. I recognized Shuli’s voice calling my name, and when I opened the door for him and Michal I was shocked to see a fully-costumed Hasidic couple, with the beard and all the rest. It was very strange to see a close friend looking so different, it was almost unreal.”
Explains Rand of his decision to leave the world of the arts behind: “When I became Orthodox I stopped working in movies and discontinued my participation in theater. I felt that there was no place for an Orthodox Jew in those worlds, and I dedicated myself to five years of studying the Torah.”
The filmmaker and his former star remained close friends, however, despite Rand being religious and Dar being secular. “We often spoke about belief,” says Dar. “I normally looked at it from a psychological perspective, and Shuli from the vantage point of a true believer.”
Two years ago, during a breakfast conversation, Dar complained that it was wrong that they would never again make a film together. “Shuli laughed and told me he has so many restrictions now it would never work out: that he could not be part of any movie that was against his chosen way of life; that he couldn’t work on the Sabbath, etc.,” says Dar. “So I suggested that we do a film on his terms, one that would honor his limitations.”
“The obligations I have as an Orthodox Jew made it a very delicate proposition to make a film,” explains Rand. “Having to take into account all of those religious details and considerations seemed an impossibility.”
While Rand mulled over this proposal, he recounted a funny story that had happened to him about a man named Moshe who had mistakenly taken his Succah without permission. Soon after, Moshe received two unexpected, unruly visitors during the Succoth holiday, unholy guests who drove him crazy. Made aware of the mix-up, Moshe returned, begging Rand for forgiveness, absolutely certain that all the trouble he had been going through with his guests was a result of his having accidentally stolen the Succah. Upon hearing the story, Dar immediately decided to make it into a movie.
Rand sought the consul of his rabbi, Shalom Arush, a leader of the Breslover community, about the prospect of his return to acting. “Rabbi Arush said that talent is a gift from God, it is part of the world, and it can be used to form bonds between religious and non-religious Jews,” Rand says. “Even during the making of the movie, it was an amazing thing to see such a bond grow between the crew and the actors. In some ways, that experience was an even greater achievement than the artistic success of the film.”
As Ushpizin’s secular film crew would themselves be considered guests in the world of the ultra-Orthodox, Rand asked the filmmaker to meet with Rabbi Arush and obtain his consent to make the movie.
“I was very reluctant about the meeting,” confesses Dar. “But when I came into the room I found this man with a smile that could melt a person in two seconds. We talked a bit and then Shuli left us alone. I was straight with the rabbi, and I think he appreciated my honesty. We talked about the polarity that exists between secular and religious Jews in Israel and his feeling was that a human Hassidic film could help diminish this animosity. Rabbi Arush gave us his blessing and promised to help. It was nothing official but his encouragement opened many doors.”
Dar next took the extraordinary step of signing a contract between the film production company, Rand, and his wife, guaranteeing the production would adhere to certain religious strictures such as not filming—or working on the film in any capacity—during the Sabbath and keeping a completely kosher set.
“It was agreed between us that if we were going to go this deep into this world, and in a way receive its welcome and be guests in this world, we could not break its rules and end up doing things that would appear disrespectful for an ultra-Orthodox,” Dar explains.
But what would happen if disagreements arose on the set? “Shuli and I both realized that prob¬lems of interpretation might arise as things changed once we arrived at the set, or just through the way I chose to direct certain scenes,” says Dar. “The fear was that in the pursuit of artistic expression, I might do something that Shuli would not be able to take part in.”
The director explains how, in order to curtail such conflict, the production company supplied Rabbi Arush with a cellular phone, dubbed “The Red Phone.” Should the filmmakers have a disagreement and a question were to arise over something Rand believed to be against the Halacha—the body of Jewish law beginning with the Pentateuch—Rabbi Arush would be called to arbitrate.
“It’s complicated enough to make a film,” says Rand. “But then to ask the director to use his art, his tools, not only to try to make a good film but one that adheres to the laws of the Jewish nation. It was a complicated arrangement, but also magical, also beautiful.”
“The red phone was not used once!” Dar happily reports. “There never came a point when Shuli and I argued over Halacha versus art.”
With Dar’s assurances in writing, a blessing from Rand’s rabbi, and the red phone securely in place, one obstacle remained toward making Ushpizin.
“We had a problem,” recounts Dar of the final stipulation for Rand’s return to acting. “Shuli would not act opposite a woman other than his wife. And his wife was not an actress. It was clear that without her there was no movie.”
Though she had no prior experience acting in films, Rand’s wife, Michal Bat Sheva Rand, was asked to co-star as Malli Ballanga, Moshe’s long-suffering spouse. “She didn’t want to be in it in the beginning,” the director admits. “Shuli and I were more confident about her than she was of herself.”
Dar took special care of his leading lady, helping her acclimate to the presence of movie cameras, lighting rigs, sound booms, and crew during rehearsals. “After the first draft was completed my wife remarked that the female character is too quiet and submissive,” says Dar. “This is not Michal. For her to be comfortable with the idea of starring alongside her husband, the role must be closer to her real character.”
Michal proved herself a very quick study, delivering an expert performance, one rich in humor, tenderness, and wisdom. Moreover, casting the couple together brings to Ushpizin an ineffable quality that cannot be faked. “Marriage is a complex experience,” says Dar. “In many respects, Shuli and Michal bring real life to the film—all the special qualities of a true married couple that cannot be scripted or rehearsed.”
Rand draws attention to an intriguing aspect of the pair’s onscreen chemistry: though their marital bond is fully felt throughout Ushpizin, Moshe and Malli are never shown kissing or sharing even the most glancing physical contact. “We managed to convey a feeling of love and romance and intimacy without showing the man and woman touch even once,” says Rand. “When you think about what most movies do to create that kind of excitement. . . ”
Though they portray a childless couple in the film, in real life Shuli and Michal are blessed with six children, which made for a very family-oriented shoot. “There were children around all the time,” says Dar of the Ushpizin production. “On a film shoot, it’s tradition that only the director sits in the director’s chair in front of the playback monitor. Oftentimes I’d get up after a take to confer with the director of photography or check something on the set and return to find one of the kids sitting in my chair. Having children around keeps you humble.”
Indeed, if Ushpizin is the story of a man’s—and a marriage’s—test of faith, Dar hints that, “Moshe and Malli prove they are worthy of the ultimate Ushpizin.”
The 25-day Ushpizin shoot (with a few additional days of B-unit photography) was done on location in various ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods in Jerusalem, with a set constructed at the Schneller military base near Me’ah She’Arim. While Dar describes the crew as a “typical, bohemian, Tel Aviv film crew,” all the actors in Ushpizin playing religious characters were, themselves, either non-actors or former actors who had become devout and left the profession. “As I started to think about some of the smaller roles I understood I must make a choice,” says Dar. “It would have been easier to get secular actors and dress them up like ultra-Orthodox— like they always do in movies—but it would never be the same.”
Therefore, for all the speaking roles, Dar decided to cast formerly secular actors who had left the profession to become ultra-Orthodox. “We went through casting agents that told us about actors that had turned to religion, and I quickly found out that they all miss acting very much. Once they understood what kind of film we were doing they jumped at the opportunity to participate.”
Asked if he can acknowledge any similarities between his own story and his character’s journey, Rand says: “All secular Jews who become religious experience somewhat similar journeys. But there the parallels end. Rather, it was never a conscious echo. And, unlike Moshe in the film, I do not have a criminal past!”
Auditions began in Jerusalem. Michael Weigel, a former actor on a successful Israeli television series, was cast as the citron appraiser in the film’s opening scene. For hapless Ben Baruch, who convinces Moshe to appropriate a supposedly abandoned Succah, Dar and Rand turned to their friend Avraham Abutbul, who had formerly appeared in films made by legendary action movie mogul Menahem Golan and is the brother of Alon Abutbul, one of Israel’s biggest movie stars. Daniel Dayan, a kung-fu master who had acted in Hollywood martial arts movies, plays the rabbi.
Scores of extras were needed for street scenes of religious Israelis preparing for the holidays. “The help came from Rabbi Arush,” recounts Dar. “He sent his assistant, Yossef Nehama, to be our extras casting agent. Yossef brought together people from different religious trends, even the most devout, who appeared as extras in the film as a ‘mitzvah’ [a good deed, a blessing]. The Tel Aviv crew admitted they had never before seen extras so disciplined and happy to work.
“The shooting was very difficult but also very special. The combination of the bohemian Tel Aviv crew with an ultra Orthodox cast, extras, and settings, in Jerusalem was something none of us had ever seen before,” says Dar. “More and more we were all drawn into this world, entering the language of these people. I got used to talking to the actors in their terminology, explaining they should use their belief in God when acting. In many instances, it helped them overcome their fear of camera. Some of the extras called me, ‘Our Rabbi.’”
“I was able to bring to Gidi a world he may not have been able to enter otherwise,” says Rand. “And Gidi, with his charm and talent and discretion, was able to make this film.”
Ushpizin’s preproduction began in the midst of the second intifada, with Tel Aviv and Jerusalem being regularly attacked. “I remember being afraid of taking the bus and going through the central station, so Shuli suggested I take a taxi van from Jerusalem to Bnei Brak [an ultra-Orthodox city adjacent to Tel Aviv],” Dar recalls. “It was a hallucinatory experience. The van was packed with Hasidic Jews, and I remember while driving and then walking around neighborhoods populated only with ultra-Orthodox, feeling for the first time that this is a world completely apart, living by different rules, a fairy tale world. Entering that world was like Alice In Wonderland down the rabbit hole. It didn’t look quite real to me.”
How, then, to visually capture that sense of otherworldliness without either resorting to stylistic pyrotechnics or, conversely, having the film devolve into a quasi-documentary? “I felt the subject matter was so unique and special, the best way to approach it was to make the filmmaking as transparent as possible,” Dar explains. “In some ways, this is a classic American way of shooting. Like in Billy Wilder’s films, where the material is very emotional but conveyed using the most stylistically unobtrusive means. I never wanted to let the style overwhelm the story.”
Asked about filmmaking influences, Dar raises an interesting rhetorical point regarding Israeli cinema. “All the great directors I admire address religion, even when attacking it harshly, from Buñuel to Bergman to Fellini,” says Dar. “I have always envied those directors who, even when they are dealing with the present, are connected to the culture and history of the place where they are working. Looking at my own culture—the origin of all monotheistic cultures—I know that we must deal with the past in order to go forward. [Israel is] part of the longest, and perhaps most influential, tradition in the world. But in some ways, we’re very disconnected from the world. Those other filmmakers have a dialogue with the world, while Judaism in Israel is very disconnected. It’s a strange historical situation.”
Were Dar’s own beliefs challenged or changed over the course of the making of Ushpizin? “I wouldn’t say they changed, but they developed,” Dar says. “I’d like to think I’m always dealing with faith, just in a very different way than Shuli. This is a movie about faith from within the faith. My job as a director is to make that real as a psychological journey, one that enables all kinds of audience members to identify with this man.”
Ushpizin opened in Israel in August, 2004. As part of his contract Dar promised not to exhibit the film on the Sabbath (in Israel only), an extraordinary concession, considering Friday and Saturday showings generally account for 40% of a film’s theatrical revenue. Though commercial movie houses in Israel had never received such a request before, they agreed to honor the filmmaker’s commitment.
“There were some serious financial risks involved,” says Dar. “I remember one of the first sneak previews that I attended. There were only 20 people in the theatre, all of them religious, from different sects. The movie started. Everybody began laughing at the right places, and then after 15 minutes, when Moshe says to his wife, ‘We need a miracle,’ and she replies, ‘We’ll see miracles.’ Suddenly I heard one of the viewers say, loudly and completely seriously, ‘Amen.’ And then more people began repeating, ‘Amen, Amen, Amen’.”
“The moment reminded me of the famous story from the beginning of cinema when the Mélies Brothers projected film of a train entering a station and people ran from the theatre because they thought the train would come bursting through the screen! I understood that many religious people had never seen a film before, and for them moviegoing is perhaps a more naïve and pure emotional experience.”
While much of Ushpizin’s initial audience was comprised of the devoutly religious, after several weeks, the film crossed-over to general audiences and became a box office hit in Israel. An official selection of the 2005 Rotterdam Film Festival, Ushpizin went on to have its North America premiere at the TriBeCa Film Festival.
At year’s end, Ushpizin received three nominations from the Israeli Film Academy: Best Actor and Screenplay for Shuli Rand, and Best Supporting Actor for Shaul Mizrahi. Capping a triumphant return to acting, Rand was honored with the Best Actor Award.
“When I attended the ceremony, at first I was a little hesitant of what it would be like to be amongst my former colleagues after years away from working with actors,” Rand recalls. “But I immediately felt at home. I don’t judge people by the length of their beards or what they wear on their head. I was standing with brothers and sisters.”
A story of faith, Ushpizin is itself the story of a gifted actor’s rebirth: Rand plans on continuing to appear in films that help foster dialogue between the secular and Orthodox worlds.
“He has deepened and matured as a performer,” Dar says of the actor who brings to Moshe Bellanga an irrepressible, large-spirited vitality that recalls the physically robust, force-of-nature acting school of Anthony Quinn, Toshiro Mifune, and Topol. “Once someone has committed so much of his life to something as Shuli has, one can’t help but become a more mature artist than before.”
Born in Haifa, Israel in 1964, Dar attended Beit Zvi. Dar’s first full-length feature film, the experimental Eddie King, made its debut in 1992 at the Locarno film Festival, where it was awarded the Bronze Leopard. Starring Ushpizin’s Shuli Rand, the surrealistic Eddie King centers on a theater actor who gets caught in a bizarre criminal plot.
Dar’s 1999 documentary, Shine, was showcased in the 2000 Berlin Film Festival and DocFest NY 2000. Recently Dar was honored with 2001 and 2002 Israeli Academy Awards for directing the television series The Kids From Napoleon Hill.
Shuli Rand was raised in a religious Zionist home in Bnei Brak, but left the religious life to attend the Nisan Nativ Acting Studio in Tel Aviv.
One of Israel’s most prominent young theater actors, Rand contributed diverse performances to stage productions of The Dybbuk, Of Mice and Men, Angels In America, Richard III, and Hamlet (1987 Meir Margalit Award), among others. Prior to Ushpizin, Rand appeared in the films Life According to Agfa, The Appointed, Newland, Gidi Dar’s debut film Eddie King, and the title role in Marco Polo.
In 1996, Rand became devoutly religious and moved to Jerusalem. Attempting to integrate his professional actor’s life with his newfound faith, without sacrificing the integrity of either, in 2000 Rand returned to the stage, performing in the one-man show Yahrzeit, an adaptation of S.Y. Agnon’s A Tale of Two Scholars from Our Town. The play was awarded the Fringe Play of the Year 2000 and the Meir Margalit Award.
Ushpizin marks Rands return to movies after an eight-year absence. For his role as Moshe Bellanga, Rand won the Israeli Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor and the Best Actor Award from the Israeli Film Academy. Since writing and starring in Ushpizin, Rand has established The Jewish Theatre of Jerusalem with his wife, Michael Bat Sheva Rand.
Bukaee was born in 1957 in Tel Aviv and raised in Kiryat Gat. An early release from the Israeli army as a result of a diagnoses of Lymphoma cancer led Bukaee to turn his attention to managing his parents’ movie theater in Kiryat Gat. Bukaee studied in the Department of Film and Television at the University of Tel Aviv, where he graduated with honors in 1984.
In 1986, Bukaee wrote, produced, and directed his first film, Avanti Popolo. The film, which won the Golden Leopard Award at the Locarno International Film Festival, is widely considered one of the most important Israeli films ever made. Thus began one of the most distinguished directing and producing careers in Israeli cinema with titles such as The Jews’ Fear (co¬producer and director) and Passover (co-producer), Life According to Agfa (co-producer), Gidi Dar’s debut feature, Eddie King (co-producer), and Marco Polo starring Shuli Rand and written, produced, and directed by Bukaee.
In his final years, Bukaee was also a teacher in the Department of Film and Communications at Beit Berl College and in the Department of Film and Television at the University of Tel Aviv. Bukaee passed away due to lung cancer during the making of Ushpizin; the film is dedicated to his memory.
See, “About the Filmmakers.”
Although she makes a spirited film debut alongside her husband Shuli in Ushpizin, Michal Bat Sheva Rand is no stranger to the arts. A graduate of Rimon Music Academy, in 1999 Rand worked with her husband on the adaptation of the play, The Prince and the Maidservant’s Son, based on a story by Rabbi Nahman of Braslev. In 2000, she co-directed the play Yahr Zeit with her husband, and in 2003 she directed the children’s play, Queen of Joy. In 2004, the Rands established the Jewish Theatre of Jerusalem. They have six children.
Born in 1958 in Tel Aviv, Mizrahi graduated from Jerusalem’s Nisan Nativ Acting Studio in 1983. An actor, director, and teacher with the Habima, The Haifa Municipal, and Bet Lessin theatres, Mizrahi is familiar to Israeli film audiences from the motion pictures Richochets, One of Us, Dogs Are Color Blind, and Zohar. For his performance as Zohar Argov, Mizrahi was honored with the 1993 Best Actor award from the Israeli Film Academy. For his sharply etched portrayal of Eliyalu Scorpio in Ushpizin, Mizrahi was nominated for the Israeli Film Academy’s 2004 Best Supporting Actor Award.
A talented actor and playwright, Ganani graduated from the Nissan Nativ Acting Studio in 1997. Ganani, who has played numerous comedic and dramatic roles on television, is author of the play, Toads. In addition to Ushpizin, Ganani has co-starred in the films, Freeing the Princess, Electricity Man, and Sima Vakin: A Witch.
