Minyan

For a Jewish prayer community or “minyan” to be able to hold a service, it must consist of at least ten practising Jews. David, who was born into a Russian immigrant family, is 17 years old and regularly helps out at minyans in Brighton Beach, a district of New York that is characterised by Jewish life. His father, a former boxing coach, his mother and his beloved grandfather all take this for granted. But David, who is just starting to tentatively explore life in the East Village gay scene, gradually begins to question the strict rules of his community and makes friends with two elderly gay Jews. At the same time, David’s sexual awakening cannot help but be affected by the emergence of HIV and AIDS.
Director Eric Steel sets his sensitive portrait of a gay Jewish youth in the as yet un-gentrified, roughshod New York of the 1980s. In his feature-film debut, he depicts unobtrusively and with quiet humour how one young man squares social attributions – immigrant, Jew, homosexual – with his own feelings and learns to define them anew.
by Eric Steel
with Samuel H. Levine, Ron Rifkin, Christopher McCann, Mark Margolis, Richard Topol, Brooke Bloom, Alex Hurt
USA 2020 English, Yiddish, Hebrew, Russian 118’ Colour World premiere

With

  • Samuel H. Levine (David)
  • Ron Rifkin (Josef)
  • Christopher McCann (Herschel)
  • Mark Margolis (Itzik)
  • Richard Topol (Zalman)
  • Brooke Bloom (Rachel)
  • Alex Hurt (Bruno)

Crew

Director Eric Steel
Screenplay Daniel Pearle, Eric Steel based on the short story by David Bezmozgis
Cinematography Ole Bratt Birkeland
Editing Ray Hubley
Music David Krakauer, Kathleen Tagg
Sound Design Tony Volante
Sound Alistair Farrant
Production Design Lucio Seixas
Costumes Annie Simon
Make-Up Rashida Bolden
Assistant Director Laura Klein
Casting Susan Shopmaker
Production Manager Brian Miller
Producers Luca Borghese, Ben Howe, Eric Steel, Luigi Caiola
Executive Producers Anne Carey, Johnny Holland

Easy There Tiger

Eric Steel

Born in 1964, he lives in New York City, USA. He studied art history at Yale University and began his film career with Walt Disney Pictures in California. He then moved to the production company Cinecom in New York before working for several years at Scott Rudin Productions where he developed films including Martin Scorsese’s Bringing Out the Dead, Alan Parker’s Angela’s Ashes and Stephen Daldry’s The Hours. After making two documentaries, Minyan is his debut feature film as a director.

Filmography

2006 The Bridge; documentary 2013 Kiss the Water; documentary 2020 Minyan; Panorama

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2020