"Menashe" Looks, With Tenderness, at Hasidic Community

Walking around Borough Park must feel, to some, like time travel. Residents of the southwest Brooklyn neighborhood are predominantly Orthodox Jews, whose 18th-century traditions still govern everything from custody disputes to attire. In “Menashe,” filmmaker Joshua Z Weinstein turns his camera on this community, using nonactors to create a tender portrait of family. In addition to the fascinating everyday details of these characters' lives, at the film's moving core is a loving father who is struggling to negotiate the gap between community expectations and self­determination.