When Jews from Yemen immigrated to Israel shortly after the state was established, many felt pressured to abandon orthodoxy for secularism. So when Yemen reopened its borders in the early '90s, the conservative Satmar wing of Hassidic Judaism urged Yemenite Jews not to move to Israel, lest they lose their religious identity. Instead, the Satmars promised jobs and homes in the United States. However, many Yemenites have reported that upon arrival in America, they've been placed in virtual captivity, forced to work as Satmar fundraisers while living in communal homes where they don't see their children. The Satmars insist this is Zionist propaganda, while Zionists insist that they welcome Orthodox Jews, as both sides continue to recruit through slander for reasons that aren't entirely clear.
Nitzan Gilady's documentary In Satmar Custody isn't really about this religious cold war, but about a family pinned down in the crossfire. Yahia and Lauza Jaradi left Yemen for New York in the late '90s, and in 2003, after their 3-year-old daughter was critically injured in a suspicious accident, the Jaradis had their kids taken away and placed with other Satmar families. Lauza was threatened with charges of child abuse, while outside lawyers swooped in with offers to get the Jaradis resettled in Israel. Gilady presents the rapidly unfolding events mostly from Yahia's point of view, as two factions whisper in the ear of a confused father while he trucks from state agency to state agency, trying to find out what's happened to his daughter and whether his wife is about to go to jail.
In Satmar Custody has a fairly bold aesthetic design: Gilady offers minimal context for the action, and he shoots it extremely close, with a near-constant ominous musical hum on the soundtrack. He makes the movie pretty harrowing, but it's hardly in the best of taste to turn the plight of a real person—especially one who doesn't understand what's going on—into a suspense movie. Given the complexity of this case and of the Satmar/Zionist feud, the documentary would've benefited from some dryly expert talking heads and a more conventional structure. Journalistic lapses aside though, In Satmar Custody definitely captures the feeling of being caught between cultures and in deep trouble. After a while, Gilady's framing becomes so claustrophobic that even the freeways and apartment complexes of American suburbia look alien and hostile.