Not Quite Kosher – A Divine Comedy: Comedy about a Jew who travels to Egypt for Passover but gets stranded in the desert.
Film plot and background
Comedy about a Jew who travels to Egypt for Passover but gets stranded in the desert.
Ben (Luzer Twersky) only knows the Orthodox life in Brooklyn, New York. When a call for help is sent from the small Jewish community in Alexandria, Egypt, that they are missing a tenth Jew for Passover, Ben boards the plane without much thought. One reason could be that he wants to escape the family’s attempts at coupling.
But on the way to his destination, he experiences all kinds of mishaps. He misses his plane and wants to complete the remaining distance by land. But when he is thrown off the bus in the middle of the Sinai desert, his only hope is the grumpy Bedouin Adel (Haitham Omari), who gives him a lift by hitchhiking. But before he can reach his destination, Ben has to help find Adel’s camel, which is somewhere in the desert. To make matters worse, the wagon breaks down and the duo has to master the way to Alexandria on foot.
The trailer shows Ben’s hilarious journey to Alexandria:
“Not quite kosher” – background, cast, cinema release
Already in 2011, the duo consisting of Stefan Sarazin and Peter Keller received the LOLA for the German Screenplay Award for their script entitled “No Name Restaurant”. It is only eleven years later that the finished film is now appearing in cinemas with the title “Not Quite Kosher”. For the culture clash comedy, the screenplay duo also took on the post of co-directors, filming took place on locations in Wadi Rum in Jordan, where visually stunning blockbusters such as “Lawrence of Arabia”, “Star Wars” and “Dune” were also made.
Haitham Omari (“Bethlehem”) and Luzer Twersky (“Felix and Meira”), whose departure from the strict religious community in New York was portrayed in the Netflix documentary “One of Us”, were cast in the two main roles. The theatrical release date for “Not Quite Kosher” is 4 August 2022.
