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Sabbath Queen

2024 1h 45m Animation Documentary LGBTQ+ List
100% Tomatometer 6 Reviews
SABBATH QUEEN, a feature documentary filmed over 21 years, follows Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie's epic journey as the dynastic heir of 38 generations of Orthodox rabbis including the Chief Rabbis of Israel. He is torn between rejecting and embracing his destiny and becomes a drag-queen rebel, a queer bio-dad and the founder of Lab/Shul--an everybody-friendly, God-optional, artist-driven, pop-up experimental congregation. SABBATH QUEEN joins Amichai on a lifelong quest to creatively and radically reinvent religion and ritual, challenge patriarchy and supremacy, champion interfaith love, and stand up for peace, ceasefire, and an end to the Occupation in Israel/Palestine. The film interrogates what Jewish survival means in a difficult rapidly changing 21st century. Read More Read Less

Critics Reviews

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Ryan Lattanzio indieWire Taking on multiple decades of the man’s life means this film loses its way sometimes amid a scattered approach, but Sabbath Queen shrewdly asks hard questions about what it means to be Jewish in the 21st century. Rated: B Jun 17, 2024 Full Review Dennis Harvey Variety This fast-paced, well-shot doc does place its finger on the quickening pulse of an ever-wider gap between liberalizing Western social values and the Orthodox sphere that believes they are antithetical to Judaism. Jun 11, 2024 Full Review Robyn Bahr Hollywood Reporter ... The director delicately contextualizes his subject’s desired legacy by threading Lau-Lavie’s harrowing familial history into the narrative. Jun 11, 2024 Full Review Abe Friedtanzer Awards Buzz Though some may not agree with all of his opinions or the way he practices his religion, this documentary makes it impossible to deny his startlingly authentic spirituality. Rated: 8/10 Jul 27, 2024 Full Review Stephen Saito Moveable Fest DuBowski affords his subject’s spiritual journey the epic quality it deserves where triumph is simply waking up at peace with where you are, recognizing all the places emotionally - and in Lau-Lavie’s case, geographically - you have to go to get there. Jun 18, 2024 Full Review Dan Bayer Next Best Picture That’s all well and good, but something special happens in the film’s last quarter that makes it required viewing not just for queer people, not just for Jews, but for everyone. Rated: 8/10 Jun 14, 2024 Full Review Read all reviews

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Movie Info

Synopsis SABBATH QUEEN, a feature documentary filmed over 21 years, follows Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie's epic journey as the dynastic heir of 38 generations of Orthodox rabbis including the Chief Rabbis of Israel. He is torn between rejecting and embracing his destiny and becomes a drag-queen rebel, a queer bio-dad and the founder of Lab/Shul--an everybody-friendly, God-optional, artist-driven, pop-up experimental congregation. SABBATH QUEEN joins Amichai on a lifelong quest to creatively and radically reinvent religion and ritual, challenge patriarchy and supremacy, champion interfaith love, and stand up for peace, ceasefire, and an end to the Occupation in Israel/Palestine. The film interrogates what Jewish survival means in a difficult rapidly changing 21st century.
Director
Sandi Simcha DuBowski
Producer
Sandi Simcha DuBowski
Screenwriter
Sandi Simcha DuBowski, Jeremy Stulberg
Production Co
Simcha Leib Productions
Genre
Animation, Documentary, LGBTQ+
Original Language
English
Runtime
1h 45m