Divan by Pearl Gluck

The movie entitled “Divan” is directed by Pearl Gluck who is also the narrator. In this movie, Gluck delineates her trip back to Hungary, in search for a couch where Hassidic Rabbis used to sleep on. The search for this couch is symbolic of Pearl Gluck’s search for her own heritage and her desire to adhere to the identity she chose for herself in spite of the fact that those in her surroundings try to shape her identity to determine her to come “back to the fold”. Though she was born in Brooklyn in 1972, in the milieu of a Hassidic community, Gluck left the community and became less religious and more secular in her outlook and observance. As she leaves to Hungary, she interacts with various characters. Some of these characters are more religious than her and they do not agree with the path she has chosen for herself, to be secular, as opposed to her very religious Hassidic father. She also presents in the movie the perspectives of other Jews like herself who chose to leave the fold and be less religious, and more involved with the outside world. In certain places in Hungary, she interacts with Hassidim and she is not allowed to film the surroundings, and at times, she interacts with individuals who point out to her she is not adhering to the strict dress code of ultra-Orthodox tradition. When she is finally able to bring back the couch home, she only brings back a replica of the original couch, and not the real couch. She informs her audience that one of these reasons is that her family back in Hungary would not entrust her with the original couch because she is not as religious as expected, and their desire for her is to get married to a Hassid and settle down.