ROMEO AND JULIET IN YIDDISH
The play Romeo and Juliet has been translated around the world. Now Eve Annenberg’s gritty, funny new feature film sets William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet in contemporary New York City with Brooklyn-inflected English and Yiddish spoken by a talented cast. Ava, a wisecracking middle-aged E.R. nurse—and bitterly lapsed Orthodox Jew—undertakes a translation of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet (from old Yiddish to new Yiddish) in her pursuit of a Master's degree. In over her head, she accepts help from some charismatic and ethically challenged (a.k.a. scamming), charming young Ultra Orthodox dropouts, Lazer and Mendy. When another ex-Orthodox leaver enchants her apartment with Kabbalah magic that he is leaking due to over-studying, the boys begin to live Shakespeare’s play in their heads, in a gauzy and beautiful alternate reality where everyone is Orthodox.
“Romeo and Juliet in Yiddish tucks Shakespeare’s tale of greatest woe into a story of intra-Judaic culture clash in present day Brooklyn….It’s premise is charming and not at all far-fetched. Anyone who loves “West Side Story” knows that New York is full of warring tribes and clans to serve as Montagues and Capulets….Ms. Annenberg aims for (and often achieves) the energy and inventiveness of an improvised, process-driven group project. The movie is always interesting to watch, but you come away with the distinct feeling that it was absolutely thrilling to make.”
—A.O. Scott, The New York Times