To Dust (2019)

Winner of the Audience Award and the Best New Narrative Award at the Tribeca Film Festival, To Dust stars Géza Röhrig (MJFF 2016 Academy Award-winning film Son of Saul) as Shmuel, a grieving Hasidic cantor in upstate New York who is struggling to make peace with the recent death of his wife. While the rest of his community urges him to move on, his two young sons believe that Shmuel’s odd behavior may mean that their father has been possessed by a dybbuk (a demon believed to be the dislocated soul of a dead person). Breaking his own religious customs, Shmuel approaches a bungling science teacher, Albert (Matthew Broderick), to help him understand the process of decomposition and hopefully put a stop to the nightmares he keeps having. Albert is reluctant at first, but soon becomes Shmuel’s unwitting partner as the two embark on a series of misadventures and outrageous experiments to better understand — and come to terms with — his wife’s passing. Produced by renowned actors Emily Mortimer, Alessandro Nivola, and Ron Perlman, To Dust is a quirky, unconventional dramedy about grief and acceptance.