1. Who was the boy, Yasso (I am not sure about the name)? I kinda figured out that he was her brother, but he was killed, or he drowned?
2. The lady, beggar. Is she real or? And what (who actually) does she refer as to their "mutual acquaintance", a woman almost old as God? Eva?
3. What did she tell exactly Ramon last time before they slept together (on the street)?
Thanks!
I loved the movie. I laughed couple of times, too. Really nice movie.
1) I missed the beginning, but you are right that the boy was her dead brother, who drowned.
2) My guess is that the woman beggar is not real. The mutual acquaintance of which she spoke was more than likely Lilith, a controversial figure in Jewish thought. According to legend, Lilith was Adam's first wife. However, she refused to submit to him, and was banished from Eden. While most historical/ religious accounts peg her as an emasculating demon, Jewish feminists of recent vintage have viewed her as a positive expression of female power.
3) I didn't get what Sonia said to Ramon.
It was a weirdly intriguing movie to me. I liked that Neither Mendel nor Sonia were labeled "the bad guy" for their choices.
Since I've only seen this movie all the way through a couple of times in the last year or so, drazen-n, I'm getting into this thread very late. But I admit that though I know a lot about the Lubavitch Orthodox Jewish community in Brooklyn, it wasn't until my second full viewing of the movie this morning before I understood the symbolism of the dead brother, Yossi, and the "beggar" woman. Realists might call them "ghosts," and atheists would say they're "figments [of Sonia's] imagination." On the other hand, I see them as less real than the ghosts but more real than imagined beings. Instead, I considered them the artist's (filmmaker's) symbols of Sonia's earthy spirituality as a contrast to Mendel's rigid religiosity. As such, they are a vital part of the artist's storytelling.
Moreover, while the old woman did compare herself and Sonia to Lilith, I perceived her as the personification of Sonia's and Yossi's doomed grandmother "baba" that they were discussing in the first scene just before he sneaked outside in the night and drowned.
All this is very deep, and it's interesting that with all the critical threads on this page, you seem to be the only other person who understood the importance of these characters. Good for you!
In peace,
Debbie Jordan
www.imaginetheworldatpeace.com
Author: THE WORLD I IMAGINE: A creative manual for ending poverty and building peace (Outskirts Press): www.outskirtspress.com/theworldiimagine
Author: LION’S PRIDE (Outskirts Press): www.outskirtspress.com/lionspride
Peace Blog: http://www.imaginetheworldatpeace.com/blog.php
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