Division Ave, produced by Lorena Rodriguez, Michal Birnbaum and Nadav Remez, 2019, Spanish, English, Yiddish, 14.5 minutes; to be screened during the San Diego Latino Film Festival on Saturday, March 23, at 3:30 p.m., at AMC Fashion Valley 18 (Screen 9), 7037 Friars Road, San Diego.
By Donald H. Harrison
SAN DIEGO – This short film will tear at your heart and your conscience. Fernanda (Lorena Rodriguez) is hired by an agency to clean the Gelfish home before Passover. At first, the gap between her and Nechama Gelfish (Michal Birnbaum) is quite wide. When Fernanda takes a phone call to talk to her five year old daughter in Puebla, Mexico, Nechama becomes angry that the maid is attending to personal matters, not to business.
However, when she learns that Fernanda has not been paid by the agency, as promised, her heart softens, and she gives her some money, of which she, herself, has little. When she tells her husband Yoel (Nati Rabinowitz) about the situation, he is contemptuous both of the day worker and of his wife. About Fernanda, he sneers that when you let a Gentile into the house, she is likely going to steal. Furthermore, if Nechama weren’t so lazy, she wouldn’t need help cleaning for Passover.
Nechama, who secretly stores National Geographic magazines under her mattress so that she can learn about the world beyond the Hasidic community, decides to help Fernanda get her money back. Their confrontation with the agent who hired Fernando strengthens their friendship.
This is a movie about sisterhood, and anti-immigrant prejudice. That those guilty of such dreadful behavior are people who hold themselves out to be pious, filled this viewer with sadness.
Tickets may be obtained via clicking this link:
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Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted via donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com