The Unorthodox is an 2018 Israeli drama film directed by Eliran Malka. It marks Malka's feature film debut, known previously as the creator of the TV series Shababnikim. The film's plot is based on the true story of the founding of the Shas political party in the 1980s in Jerusalem. The protagonist, Yaakov Cohen (Shuli Rand), is driven to form a religious political party representing the interests of Sephardic Jews. The incident that drives Cohen is the expulsion of his daughter Heli (Or Lumbrozo) from a Bais Yaakov school, owing to her Sephardic background.The movie opened the 2018 Jerusalem Film Festival.
It also marks Rand's return to cinema after a 15-year absence from the big screen since his previous role in the film Ushpizin, following his previous role in the acclaimed film Ushpizin.
Plot
The year is 1983. Yaakov Cohen (played by Shuli Rand) is a widower, the owner of a printing press, and a single father. When his daughter Chali (played by Or Lumbrozo) is expelled from her seminary, he becomes outraged by the discrimination and racism within the educational institutions of Beit Yaakov and Agudat Yisrael, as well as the meager budgets allocated to Sephardic schools. Determined to challenge the status quo, he decides to establish a Sephardic ultra-Orthodox political party to run for the Jerusalem mayoral elections, just two months before the election date.
Joining him are two partners: Yigal Vaknin (played by Yoav Levi), a ritual slaughterer and mohel who is a baal teshuva (a secular Jew who returned to religious observance), and Rabbi Moshe Sharvit (played by Yaakov Cohen). None of them have prior political experience. Against all odds, they succeed in securing a seat on the city council. Later, they launch a list for the national Knesset elections, but over time, Cohen finds his position increasingly marginalized.
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