ONE OF US (Toronto International Film Festival, Toronto, Ontario, Canada 2017)

Ben Meyers’ rating: 4.4|5.0 Starsìììì

One of Us provides a WOW! look into the perils of divorcing oneself from lifelong support structures and serves as a highly educational documentation of how life can work after such decisions are made. The study uses ultra-orthodox Hasidic Judaism as the model and follows the lives of three Hasidic Jews after they have made this type of decision. The film honestly documents the pain of the community as well as the pain of the individual and shows the difficulties of the individual who tries to establish independent living while not being able to completely leave long-established, basic life habits and ways of thinking.

Film Poster Courtesy of Wikipedia

Storyline

Three Hasidic community members decide to leave their community for three separate reasons.

Additional Thanks

Thank you to Directors Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady for directing effort. Thank you to Producers Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady for making the film possible. Additional characters/cast include: Herself (Etty), Herself (Chani Getter), Himself (Ari Hershkowitz), and Himself (Luzer Twersky).

Buy a ticket? Yes? No? Maybe?

Yes. While not a new story, it serves as good documentation of difficulties surrounding community ostracism and finding place within unknown communities that operate on entirely different structure systems. Very good watch for teen/adult audiences that provides excellent opportunity for open discussion about the value or non-value of leaving childhood social support structures, difficulties of survival after the fact, and evaluating the reasons for leaving/reasons for return.

Video Critique Available Here:

Ben Meyers