Menachem Daum and Oren Rudavsky's fascinating documentary, A Life Apart, offers a penetrating look at the seemingly impenetrable world of Hasidic Jews, a rigid enclave of "urban Puritans" that has thrived in Brooklyn since WWII. "A minority within a minority," the Hasidim arrived in America decimated and disillusioned by the Holocaust, only to face the constant threat of assimilation, which had reduced other immigrant cultures to a homogenous, flavorless mush. Filmed over a seven-year period, A Life Apart is remarkable both for its intimate access to a group wary of outsiders and for the way that access provides a unique, illuminating perspective on American life. While certain aspects of Hasidic tradition—arranged marriages, a strict dress code, narrow moral boundaries, and conservative gender roles—have driven some away, Daum and Rudavsky show how they also sustain a sense of community and enlightenment. This is especially evident in the documentary's second half, when it drops a tedious, if necessary, history lesson (voiced by awkward dual narrators Leonard Nimoy and Sarah Jessica Parker) and gets into Hasidic homes, schools, and ceremonies. While A Life Apart shows the compromises involved in living within and outside the mainstream, it's mostly a joyous and inspiring celebration of Hasidism's unlikely survival and growth.