Finally Saw Ushpizin

Last Sunday, my wife and I went to the Promenade Rainbow Cinemas and saw Ushpizin. I had thought that since it was already in its third week in Toronto that the theatre would be empty. However, the place was packed and sold out (albeit, it was a tiny theatre with not much room to begin with). The movie was pretty good and quite interesting. I just have a few thoughts on it.

• Most of the movie appears to have been filmed in one cul-de-sac in Mea Shearim. Very little of the rest of Jerusalem and of Mea Shearim itself was shown. It would have been nicer had they done that, even using stock footage for few second clips, as it would have given the film a better texture.
• Similarly, although the movie is about Breslover Chasidim, it gives the impression that Breslovers are the only Chasidim that live there.
• It seemed to me that there was almost as much smoking as there was dialogue. Every major character in this movie chain smokes, except on Yom Tov itself. The couple sitting in front of us muttered something as one of the characters lit yet another cigarette.

This last part reminds me of something of when I was in Israel. There is a scene where as soon as they finish Havdala they light up. When I was in Israel, I was over at someone's house. In a religious paper, a cigarette company advertised their product by showing a havdala candle, wine, spices, and a pack of cigarettes with the heading Shavuah Tov. The implication was that now that Shabbos was over, now people can resume smoking. (My Israeli host, a non-smoker, was very upset at the ad.)