Director-writer Keith Thomas.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Davis credits Thomas’ script as crucial to the beauty of the film. “I really think about it as a story about personal faith and community and mental health,” he mused. “I mean it really touches on a lot of stuff.”<\/p>\n
Heightening the tension and suspense in the film is a modern soundtrack by composer Michael Yerzerski with special sound effects by Juan Campos. According to Davis, Thomas wrote a good deal of the suspenseful music into the script and he and cinematographer Zach Kuperstein worked closely prior to production to create storyboards and detailed shot lists that added to the anxiety levels of the film.<\/p>\n
Davis prepared for the film by emerging himself into the religious observant Brooklyn community and collaborating with Thomas on developing the dialogue in the film. It was important for him to research the dialect and to learn how the people speak naturally there.<\/p>\n
“I was constantly trying to bring in little pieces of authenticity and character. Certain things we changed here and there,” Davis noted. <\/p>\n
One of his most difficult challenges was learning to improvise in Yiddish. “Not being a Yiddish speaker, it was important for me to have some extra bullets in the chamber,” he explained.<\/p>\n
The insular world of the Borough Park community was also jolting to Davis. “My experience with Judaism prepared me in some ways, but it did not really prepare me for the introduction to that world. It\u2019s very extreme,” Davis said. “It was eye opening to learn about that world (and) to learn about the struggles of that community.”<\/p>\n
Many young people are challenged because they are unprepared to deal with the world at large, he said. “It\u2019s my opinion that many people are under-educated,” Davis emphasized.<\/p>\n
Demons like the mazzik are used by older members of the community to keep younger members in check, he said.<\/p>\n
“This community, especially the one is New York, is born out of this fear from the Holocaust, from the pogroms,” Davis opined. “The fact they have so many children is a direct correlation to the fact that so many people were lost.”<\/p>\n
He considers much of this anguish as a generational trauma and believes these are the emotions that contribute to the strengthening of the mazzik depicted in the film. He believes Yakov is forced to struggle bravely against the mazzik over the course of that single evening in order to find his place in the world.<\/p>\n
Also playing in the film opposite Davis is Menashe Lustig, who plays Reb Shulem, Yakov’s mentor and spiritual advisor. His hiring of Yakov as a shomer is his thinly veiled attempt to bring him back to his former community. It is a task Yakov dreads, but accepts because he needs the money.<\/p>\n
“With acting the most important thing you can do is listen,” Davis continued “So, when you have a great actor with you, you have a lot to listen to.” That contrasts with many of the scenes in the film, which have Davis pictured by himself contending with the mazzik. “When you\u2019re by yourself, you have to listen to your own thoughts,” he said. “You have to listen to the noises around you and you have to listen to your fear, your own doubt.”<\/p>\n
Davis also was thankful to have had several scenes with the noted actress Lynn Cohen (“Sex in the City” and “The Hunger Games”). She plays Mrs. Litvak, the widow spending the night in the same apartment with Yakov. “This was her last film before she passed away,” Davis groaned. <\/p>\n
Dave Davis, center, as the lead in “Hamlet.” (Photo courtesy New Orleans Shakespeare Festival)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
A graduate of Tulane University with a bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts, Davis played “Hamlet” at the age of 22 for the New Orleans Shakespeare Festival at Tulane. Prior to taking on the role of Yakov, he labored for ten years as an actor in New York and Los Angeles. During the current health crisis, with productions halted worldwide, he returned home to New Orleans last summer. <\/p>\n
While he has worked on other projects yet to be released and has others in pre-production, Davis was happy to see “The Vigil” finally receive its general release in the United States.<\/p>\n
“One of the most fascinating things about delving into this character was how easily I could have been in that community had my great-grandparents had a different attitude towards Americanization,” he mused. <\/p>\n
Otherwise, he might be confined to an insular community and living his entire life within a three-block radius, afraid to leave because “a demon might get me.”<\/p>\n
His ability as an actor was put to the challenge with this film. “There were certain scenes that were more emotional than others,” he admitted and he found himself channeling many of the emotions he felt from the depth of his own loneliness and his own personal confusion.<\/p>\n
“The really difficult part was getting into that mindset and staying there for the duration of the shoot,” he concluded.<\/p>\n
“The Vigil<\/strong>,” written by Keith Thomas and starring Dave Davis is currently playing at the Prytania Canal Place Theater, 333 Canal Street (3rd Floor) with showings now through Thursday at 2:00, 6:00 and 10 p.m. daily. For more information, call 504-290-2658.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
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