Silvia Scarrone

Shtisel is about waiting, revolution, fear, life, hate, enemies, family conflicts. Everything seen in the light of religion. It is about an orthodox Jew community in Jerusalem and how they deal with their everyday struggles. It is true, vivid like Dostoevskij or Victor Hugo and it portrays the characters in their lights and shadows with poetic compassion. Art and the conflict between life and art regain the strength of Thomas Mann. The serie is dubbed and it is its great fictional strength because it comprises the original musicality of the language. The flavor, the smell, the vividness of the Hassidic neighborhood are flowing with the consonants of the Jewish language and the Yiddish. Irony plays a fundamental part in the events. Everything, even deaths and betrayals, are seen through the lenses of a powerful irony which allows the viewers a sense of relief and, even, the recollection of crystal joy.