Film Info
Zorro’s Bar Mitzva

Film Information

Exhibition Title	Zorro’s Bar Mitzva
Original Title	Zorros Bar Mizwa
English Title	Zorro’s Bar Mitzva
Director	Ruth Beckermann
Country
Year	2006
Format	35 mm
Colour	Color
Duration	90'

Production:

Dirección / Director: Ruth Beckermann
Guión / Scriptwriter: Ruth Beckermann
Fotografía / Cinematography: Nurith Aviv, Leena Koppe, André Wanne
Edición / Editing: Dieter Pichler, Thomas Woschitz
Producción / Producer: Ruth Beckermann
Compañía Productora / Production Company: Ruth Beckermann Filmproduktion

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Synopsis

Ruth Beckermann is Viennese and so are the Jewish families in this documentary, but some of these images could have been shot in the porteño neighborhood of Villa Crespo. The traditions of the Hebrew religion repeat themselves, as well as the pomp saved for the great family events, whose representations tend to induce involuntary laughs. The filmmaker focuses on four well-to-do Viennese families, a detail that aggravates the artsy streak of the celebrations. Three teenage boys celebrate their bar mitzvah –and one girl, it’s female version, the bat mitzvah– with relatives and schoolmates, and they do it in a big way: in Israel. The invitations aren’t cards but videos that have them as actors, and the bar mitzvah planner showcases the new trend: theme festivity, which will allow one of the sentenced to play Zorro himself. The documentary becomes a comedy and provokes laughter through recognition, between peplum scenes and videos with “page-turn” effect.