The Outer Circle

2017, 15 minutes

Can you ever be made Jewish? And in a family of proud Baghdadis, is being Jewish enough?

The film is a portrait of four generations of the Fattals as they gather for their annual feast in Mama’s house on Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year). The story takes place in a townhouse furnished in gilded tissue-box covers, ivory statuettes, marble fruit decorations, and enough Persian rugs to stock a small vendor. Midway though a gruelling Orthodox conversion, Daniel Fattal and his soon-to-be fiancée Katherine are eager to gain the blessing of his intimidating and loud Iraqi Jewish family. Katherine’s natural elegance and ‘English English’ heritage immediately endears her to them, but it soon becomes apparent that beneath the warm and welcoming atmosphere, some are not ready as others to accept her.