Zorro's Bar Mitzva
( Zorros Bar Mizwa )

Ruth Beckermann
2005 - 90 min - 35 mm - Couleur - Autriche

The families of Sharon, Tom, Moishy and Sophie are get- ting ready for their twelve-year-old children’s Bar or Bat Mitzva. André, an expert of special-occasion videos, had no Bar Mitzva party of his own. He is preparing a “Zorro” clip with the young boy as the hero, which is to be shown as the central party piece. In another family, repeated gestures and words take place within a meditative Orthodox setting. The boys have to learn to recite the prayers and read the Torah at the synagogue. They practice, rehearse, remember the gestures and words, and learn how to put on their Talith and Tefilins. Each step gradually becomes more meaningful, and the prospect of the party becomes increasingly disconcerting. Solemn or openly festive, at the Wailing Wall or in the chic boutique where Sophie chooses her dress, these ritual initiations into adulthood take on a variety of forms and meanings, and guides the journey through tradition and Judaism as it is lived today.