NY פאוסט ווגען ציוניסטישע פילם

איך האב דאס באקומען אין אימייל
IN SATMAR CUSTODY
By RUSSELL SCOTT SMITH


IN SATMAR CUSTODY
In English, Hebrew, Yemenite and Yiddish with English subtitles. Running time: 70 minutes. Not rated (nothing objectionable). At the Two Boots Pioneer Theater, Third Street at Avenue A.

THE Israeli documentary "In Satmar Custody" is infuriating, but not for the reason filmmakers want it to be.

As the title suggests, the film is meant as a damning look at the Satmars, a sect of anti-Zionist Orthodox Jews.

It sounds like an interesting subculture, but the filmmakers barely talk to Satmars and don't examine why they're against Israel.

Instead, the film focuses on a heart-rending story about a young couple who emigrated in the early 1990s from Yemen to the Satmars' community in Rockland County.

After one of the couple's six young children died in an accident, the local authorities accused the mother of child abuse, and their other children were taken away and placed with other Satmar families.

The movie's talking heads suggest that these anti-Zionist Satmars are villains - baby stealers, in fact.

But judging from the evidence presented, there's no reason to think the Satmars are at fault. If the parents have a beef, it would seem that it's with the Rockland child-welfare system.



It makes you wonder what the film's real agenda is.