Congregation Shaara Tfille hosts David: (The Movie) - 08/10/2013

The Saratoga Jewish Cultural Festival family-oriented, fun-filled event intended to foster community, enhance Jewish identity and raise awareness of Jewish cultural arts.

This 2011 prize-winning film explores boundaries of faith and trust in New York’s multi-cultural backdrop.  At the conclusion of David, the film and its implications will be discussed.

David tells the story of eleven year-old Daud (Muatasem Mishal), the son of a religious imam in Brooklyn, who is mistaken for a Jewish boy.  He has to juggle the high expectations of his Father (Maz Jobrani) and his feelings of isolation and difference– even from his peers in the Muslim community. Through an innocent act of good faith, Daud inadvertently befriends a group of Jewish boys who mistake him as a fellow classmate at their orthodox school, in the neighboring Jewish community. A genuine friendship grows between Daud and Yoav, one of the Jewish boys, and his family. Unable to resist the joy of a camaraderie that he has never felt before, David, as he is known to the kids, is drawn into a complicated dilemma inspired by youthful deceit and the best of intentions.

David is first and foremost a story of friendship between two boys.  The film questions the boundaries of our cultures and religions, and looks at how static and yet fluid these boundaries can be.