Divan

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Audience Member In this sometimes self-indulgent memoir documentary, director Pearl Gluck takes us on her journey to find and retrieve a divan. The divan is a family heirloom upon which some renowned rabbis slept. While she goes on her search which takes her back to Hungary and The Ukraine, she tackles topics like alienation from family, faith and culture, the Holocaust, the cult of personality around some Hasidic Jewish rabbis and the place of women in hasidism. The divan itself takes on a presence of its own, almost iconic as Gluck uses the divan as place to interview people who have left the Hasidic community. Gluck tries to keep the humor moving but I thought she was reaching at times. There is a surprise toward the end which reveals Gluck's real purpose behind her journey. She also uses the end to take some parting shots. Sardonic and a little uneven and some below average sound editing, this is a film worth viewing if not only for some insight into the Hasidic Jewish community. It's a good oral history too. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/05/23 Full Review Audience Member Really good movie! I saw it at the Wisconsin Film Festival. Well worth tracking down to see it. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 01/21/23 Full Review Audience Member well, you know... (NOBODY's BUSINESS isn't even on this list... alan berliner's film which is one of my main inspirations for filmmaking) Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 01/26/23 Full Review walter m [font=Century Gothic]In the documentary, "Divan", Pearl Gluck tells the story of a couch but it is no ordinary couch. As the story goes, in 1879 Hungary, a Hasidic Rebbe is looking for a place to rest for the night and is offered a couch by a poor family. In the morning, he mentions the roughness of the couch and the poor family finds a treasure in the couch which they use to build a synagogue.[/font] [font=Century Gothic][/font] [font=Century Gothic]Pearl Gluck has a doozy of a couch story of her own to tell in this poignant and heartfelt documentary which uses that story as a starting point to explore Hasidic culture, specifically the Hasidic enclave of Boro Park in Brooklyn.(As a child, Gluck was raised in a Hasidic household but left with her mother when her parents divorced.) She receives a grant to collect Hasidic stories in Hungary. While there she looks for the above mentioned couch and makes enquiries about bringing it back to the states, all the while filming her results.[/font] Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Audience Member WTH is this film?!11111111 Rated 1/5 Stars •  Rated 1 out of 5 stars 01/29/23 Full Review Read all reviews

Divan

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