Films A to Z
Minyan
- Runtime:
- 113 min.
- Year of Production:
- 2020
- Country:
- USA
- Director:
- Cast:
- Samuel H. Levine
Christopher McCann
Mark Margolis
Richard Topol
Brooke Bloom
Alex Hurt - Production Company:
- Berlinale Section:
- Panorama
- Berlinale Category:
- Feature Film
For a Jewish prayer community or “minyan” to be able to hold a service, it must consist of at least ten practising Jews. David, who was born into a Russian immigrant family, is 17 years old and regularly helps out at minyans in Brighton Beach, a district of New York that is characterised by Jewish life. His father, a former boxing coach, his mother and his beloved grandfather all take this for granted. But David, who is just starting to tentatively explore life in the East Village gay scene, gradually begins to question the strict rules of his community and makes friends with two elderly gay Jews. At the same time, David’s sexual awakening cannot help but be affected by the emergence of HIV and AIDS.
Director Eric Steel sets his sensitive portrait of a gay Jewish youth in the as yet un-gentrified, roughshod New York of the 1980s. In his feature film debut, he depicts unobtrusively and with quiet humour how one young man squares social attributions – immigrant, Jew, homosexual – with his own feelings and learns to define them anew.
BIOGRAFIE Eric Steel
Born in 1964, he lives in New York City, USA. He studied art history at Yale University and began his film career with Walt Disney Pictures in California. He then moved to the production company Cinecom in New York before working for several years at Scott Rudin Productions where he developed films including Martin Scorsese’s Bringing Out the Dead, Alan Parker’s Angela’s Ashes and Stephen Daldry’s The Hours. After making two documentaries, Minyan is his debut feature film as a director.
FILMOGRAFIE Eric Steel (selection)
2020 Minyan
2013 Kiss The Water
Eric Steel @IMDb
Minyan @IMDb
Interview with Eric Steel, Samuel H. Levine and Ron Rifkin on 'Minyan'
Trailer