Colombian documentary Torah Tropical follows the peculiar phenomenon of Latin American Evangelical Christians converting to Orthodox Judaism, and reveals Zionism’s troubling relationship with race and the idea of a Promised Land.
In a tropical paradise turned dystopian by the War on Drugs, struggling Colombian parents Isska and Menajem reinvent themselves as Orthodox Jews who believe that God is calling them home to the Promised Land. Over the course of a year in which reality and religious parable collide, Isska and Menajem risk everything in an attempt at immigrating to Israel, putting their family and faith to the ultimate test.
Through Isska and Menajem’s struggle to give their daughters a better life, the consequences of economic, racial and religious exclusion are explored with poetic intimacy, inviting audiences to fall in love with a family that defies stereotypes and inspires us to find hope in the middle of some of the world’s cruelest intersections.
STORY BACKGROUND
Jewish-American photographer Heidi Paster, who lived in Cali, Colombia, for nearly 20 years, stumbled upon a strange phenomenon in this war-torn city when she was picked up by a taxi driver adorned in traditional Orthodox attire. In a country where Jews are rare, she learned that he was part of a movement of ex-Evangelical Christians who renounce Jesus as a false messiah, and dedicate their lives to converting to Orthodox Judaism, calling themselves “los emergentes” or the “emergent ones.”
Heidi spent several years photographing the convert community of Beit David, based in Cali’s El Guabal neighborhood, and in 2021, published a photo essay “The Emerging Jews of Colombia” in The Washington Post Magazine. She enlisted Cali-based production duo ThisTopia (Ezra Axelrod and David Restrepo) to bring the story to film.
TEAM BIOS
HEIDI PASTER / EXECUTIVE PRODUCER / PRODUCER Born and raised in Southampton, New York, Heidi is a Jewish-American photographer who has spent the last 15 years photographing daily life in Cali, Colombia, where she lived for two decades. Her work focuses on culturally significant, yet overlooked communities, and her photo essay about the lives of the emerging Jews of Cali was published in April 2021 in The Washington Post Magazine. The photo series was exhibited at the Jewish Museum of Florida and is now part of their permanent collection. Heidi brings to Torah Tropical a profound knowledge of the importance of this story and an intimate relationship with the subjects of the film. Heidi overseas the film’s fundraiser activities and advises on the project’s creative and narrative scope.
EZRA AXELROD / PRODUCER / DIRECTOR Ezra Axelrod is a composer, writer and first-time filmmaker originally from rural Eastern Oregon. In 2017 he settled permanently in Cali, Colombia, the contemporary epicenter of the Drug War, to work on peace process initiatives with his long-term partner, Cali-native and drug policy reform expert David Restrepo. In 2021, Ezra and David founded ThisTopia, a vehicle for developing transmedia storytelling projects from Southwestern Colombia that draw international attention to defiant local stories at the forefront of global paradigm shifts. Ezra's next project, The Coca Codex, documents the unexpected alliance between Colombia's Indigenous and Queer movements in ending the Drug War. Ezra is also the composer of the Torah Tropical soundtrack.
DAVID RESTREPO / PRODUCER / EXECUTIVE PRODUCER Co-founder of ThisTopia, David is an economic, cultural, and environmental innovator from Cali, focused on developing community regeneration initiatives in Southwest Colombia. He is also a researcher at the Center for the Study of Security and Drugs (CESED) at the University of the Andes in Bogotá. After 10 years working as a strategy consultant in London, where he advised Fortune 500 companies such as Coca Cola, Danone, and the Hearst Corporation, he returned to Colombia to spearhead transformational projects such as developing the legal markets for cannabis and coca leaf, thereby ending the catastrophic War on Drugs. In Torah Tropical, David works alongside Ezra articulating the creative and narrative vision, and carries out general production and management activities.
JIMMY FERGUSON / DIRECTOR / DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY Jimmy is a multicultural, award-winning film artist with deep experience in all stages of production spanning fiction/narrative, documentary, commercials, and contemporary art. His narrative and documentary shorts have premiered at Mill Valley, DOC NYC, Maryland, Salento International, and Newport Beach Film Festivals. Jimmy’s honors include: LA Filmmaker of the Year (2008), a Jerome Foundation grant (2014), and a QCA Artist Commission (2019). He participated in IFP's Project Forum (2013) and EAVE’s Ties That Bind (2017). Jimmy won a CINDY Gold Award for his #NotAFan campaign against domestic violence (2017). Jimmy is a current member of the Brooklyn Filmmakers Collective. Jimmy has a keen interest in contemporary spirituality, is fluent in Spanish, and is passionate about exploring Colombian narratives. In Torah Tropical, Jimmy directs with Ezra Axelrod and Gloria Nancy Monsalve, serves as director of photography, and is a member of the script-writing team.
GLORIA NANCY MONSALVE / DIRECTOR / WRITER Colombian script-writer and director Glory Nancy Monsalve’s film career started in 1998 when she shot the making-of documentary for Victor Gaviria’s iconic film The Rose Seller. Since then, she has worked closely with Gaviria as a script-writer, including 2014’s The Animal’s Wife, and Sosiego, currently in production. Gloria Nancy has served as script-writer for a wide variety of Colombian films and TV series and is the winner of multiple awards across Latin America, including Colombia’s India Catalina Award for Best Film (Los asombrosos días de Guillermo). For the past five years, she has been establishing a co-direction and writing alliance with Jimmy Ferguson, and the two are developing a fiction feature called Ximena, about the confluence of risky underground plastic surgery and sex work in Medellín. In Torah Tropical, Gloria Nancy is part of the script-writing and direction team.
ETIENNE BOUSSAC / EDITOR. One of Cali and Colombia’s most renowned editors, Etienne has edited films such as Embrace of the Serpent (nominated Best Foreign Film 2016 Academy Awards, Winner of the CICAE Award Quinzaine des Realisateurs 2015 Cannes Film Festival). Other films include Victor Gaviria’s The Animal's Wife (2016), the documentary Silence of the Guns (2017), the first-ever documentary to open the Cartagena International Film Festival. He has been the Lead Editor of TV series for Fox, Netflix, and Amazon. He has won several awards such as the Platino Ibero-American Film Award (2016) for Best Editing for Embrace of the Serpent, the Coral Award for Best Editing for Embrace of the Serpent at the Havana International Film Festival (2016), the Macondo Award for Best Editing (2015) and the Silver Biznaga for Best Editing for The Animal's Wife at the Malaga Film Festival (2017).
Contact:
Ezra Axelrod / Producer
thistopiastudios@gmail.com
+57 315-801-1545
Heidi Paster/ Executive Producer
heidipaster@yahoo.com
+1 917-518-1476