Last month I spoke with Luzer Twersky, a former member of the Hasidic community, who is currently starring in Félix and Meira, the story of an unconventional romance between two people who are living vastly different lives even though they live just a few blocks away from each other. Now that it’s opening in many more cities around the country, I had the chance to talk to writer/director Maxime Giroux about his poignant film.
Meira (Hadas Yaron, Fill the Void), a young Hasidic housewife and mother, and Félix (Martin Dubreuil), a man mourning the recent death of his father, meet at a local bakery in Montreal’s Mile End district. What starts as an innocent friendship becomes more serious as the two wayward strangers find comfort in one another. Meira is married to the devout Shulem (Luzer Twersky) who cannot understand his wife’s interests in things as foreign to them as American blues music. As Felix opens Meira’s eyes to the world outside of her tight-knit Orthodox community, her desire for change becomes harder for her to ignore, ultimately forcing her to choose: she must remain in the life that she has always known or give it all up to be with Félix. Giroux’s film is a moving tale of self-discovery, a fascinating glimpse into the Hasidic community, and a modern love story set against backdrops both familiar and unknown.
Danny Miller: As I was telling Luzer Twersky a few weeks ago, I’ve always been fascinated by the Hasidic community even though I wouldn’t last very long in that world. Were you always interested in such groups as well?
Maxime Giroux: Oh yes, for sure. For many years I lived in this neighborhood in Montreal where there are many Lubavitcher and Satmar families. My film takes place in the Satmar community which is a lot more closed. I’m a goy and I didn’t know anything about these people! To be honest, as a French Canadian, I didn’t know a lot about Judaism in general. But I was always so curious and would try to talk to my neighbors but they were not very interested in talking to outsiders. I finally decided to make a film to learn more about them and I discovered they were about a lot more than wearing black clothes and not wanting to talk to me! It was a great adventure making this film.
Was it just a lucky act of fate that you found Luzer Twersky who grew up in the Satmar community?
I always knew that the key for me was to have ex-members of the community involved in the film. Most of the movies that I’ve seen with Hasidic characters are so fake, I didn’t believe in the characters at all. I wanted to be very accurate so I started searching for ex-members. From the earliest days, everyone I met kept telling me that I have to meet this guy, Luzer Twersky — they were all talking about him! In the end, I don’t think this film would have been possible without Luzer.
And he isn’t the only ex-Hasid in the cast?
No, there are five of them.
Let me guess — the couple who at one point are taking care of Shulem and Meira’s child?
The woman, yes!
I had a feeling about her.
And the guy who plays her husband is a very famous Jewish klezmer-rap artist from Montreal named Socalled who sings in Yiddish. I was very interested in having people from Montreal’s Jewish community and exploring that as well.
I know that Hasidic people do not go to the movies but did you try reaching out to the Satmar community at all?
Yes, we tried to talk to some people, but you know, for them, they really don’t want this film to exist! We treated them with great respect in the film, I think, but in the end, they were never going to like this story.
Did you have any concerns about casting Israeli actress Hadas Yaron as Meira after she played a Hasidic woman in Rama Burshtein’s wonderful Fill the Void?
I did, in the beginning, to be honest. I was worried that she had already played this character and I wanted someone who could already speak Yiddish. I searched for an ex-member of the community but even though I found some good actresses who ended up in the film in other roles, none of them were right for Meira. My producers, Sylvain Corbeil and Nancy Grant decided to ask Hadas to audition for the film without my knowledge. She really liked the script and didn’t feel it was the same character at all. They sent me her audition and within ten seconds, I knew she was Meira. Hadas is really an incredible actress.
She’s so great, and her Yiddish sure seemed authentic to me!
Luzer translated the entire script into Yiddish and worked closely with Hadas before they ever came to set. When we started shooting, they were just perfect together, acting in Yiddish. Even if you don’t understand the words they’re saying, you can tell when two actors have a really strong connection. Luzer is a great actor, too, and this was his first feature film. He has so much charisma. To be honest, it was more difficult for me to shoot the French Québecois scenes, that’s a tough language to work with!
I wonder if some American audiences will be confused about why Félix speaks to Meira in English at first. I assume it’s because most of the orthodox Jewish community in Montreal are not French speakers?
Yes. The women usually learn some French, but most of the men do not since they rarely interact with the Québecois community. They speak a little English but even that, not so well. When Luzer first left his community at the age of 22, he did not speak English very well even though he was born and raised in New York!
I was a little surprised by Félix’s initial interest in a Hasidic woman and that he’d go right up to her and try to have a conversation even though it’s forbidden for her to talk to him. It seemed rather brazen.
Ah, but you see, we French Canadians don’t know anything about that! I made Félix as naïve as I was when I was living among these people. For years I kept trying to talk to them and I would sometimes exchange a few words with some of the men but with the women it was impossible. Félix senses that Meira is probably not supposed to talk to him but he has no idea of the huge consequences of what he’s doing, he’s just super-naïve…just like I was!
When you were doing research for the film, did you spend time in the community?
Yes, my naiveté served me well! At the beginning I was going into a lot of Hasidic synagogues in Montreal and New York and they were like, “What are you doing here?” I told them I just wanted to learn about them and what was happening there. I got thrown out a few times but other times they welcomed me in. I went to a Friday night Shabbat dinner with some Hasidic families in New York and for me it was like being on another planet. Really fascinating.
It’s odd because even though we’re rooting for Meira to find her way and we’re cringing at the restrictions she has to deal with, Shulem is such an interesting, complex character. There were times when I liked him more than Félix!
Oh, for sure, me, too!
That fight scene between Shulem and Félix is pretty amazing.
That was a real surprise. I asked Luzer to just go for it — to not worry about being violent — the actor playing Félix was prepared for it. So when he came at him that way, I was shocked. At first I told Luzer, “No, you really need to punch him!” But Luzer said there’s no way his character would know how to do that, and that the way he attacks him is much more realistic. So I said, “Oh, right, do it the way you’d do it in real life.” And it’s far more effective and moving that way. Clumsy and realistic — I never could have written that.
When I spoke to him, he said he was often moving things around the set to make them more authentic for a Hasidic household.
Yes, and even the way he washes his hands and prays in the morning. You can research that stuff, but Luzer lived this life for 22 years and obviously knew how to do it all authentically. I think Shulem is the most surprising character in the film.
The scene where he meets with Félix and tells him to take care of Meira is achingly poignant even though I’m not sure that would happen in real life.
You know something? When we presented the film at the New York Jewish Film Festival, there were a lot of ex-members of the Hasidic community in the audience. After the film, one woman came up to me and said that she had an affair when she was Hasidic and decided to go with the other man. And her husband went to the other guy and asked him to take good care of her! I was very touched to hear that.
Wow. I have to say that I really loved the ambiguous ending of the film. It reminded me of the ending of The Graduate where some people think Elaine and Benjamin are clearly going to be happy together for the rest of their lives and some think that they are both already regretting their decision.
You’re absolutely right, my inspiration was 100 percent The Graduate! It was very important for me to have an ending like that. With all the conversations I’d had with the ex-members of the community, it was clear that leaving was a very tough decision for them and that their lives after that were not without challenges. It was impossible for me to have some happy, carefree ending between Félix and Meira, nor did I want to have a dark ending. I wanted to leave it open and let the audience think about all the consequences that these people would be facing.