Without challenging the truth of the sad stories the movie tells, I still think it went overboard in the cinematic tricks that make the Hassidim look an alien peril-- photographing them from the back or in far-off groups as if they are too frightening to be approached, or showing fractions of their faces, or showing them moving quickly while the soundtrack plays slow, ominous music. The movie could have made its point-- to the extent that its point is legitimate-- without such techniques of audience manipulation. And the manipulation would be less distressing if the documentary were merely one among a large number of competing sympathetic and unsympathetic portrayals of Hassidism. As is, this is likely to be the only view of Hassidism many people receive, at least this year, and it will leave them with an imbalanced impression. Who would guess, after seeing these stories, that there are also people who willingly join the Hassidic movement without being born or brainwashed into it?
