The Tribe

Narrated by Peter Coyote, filmmaker Tiffany Shlain's The Tribe combines archival film footage, graphics, animation, still-life dioramas featuring posed Barbie dolls, and a bit of slam poetry to present an unorthodox experimental collage history of the Jewish people from biblical through contemporary times—a springboard for discussion of what it means to be an American Jew in the 21st century. Interwoven throughout the scattershot narrative is an abbreviated personal history of Ruth Handler, a Jewish woman who created the Barbie doll in 1959, which she modeled after a sexy German doll named Lilli that was sold in cigar shops as a novelty item for men (later in life, Handler would fight breast cancer and launch a second career as a designer of prosthetic breasts). A statistically small “tribe” of outsiders persecuted throughout history and subjected to numerous exiles (“diasporas”) around the world until the formation of the Jewish state of Israel in 1948, the Jewish people today are fragmented into many sub-tribes—some traditional (Sephardic, Ashkenazi, Hasidic), some modern “roll your own” composites such as the Hindjew (Hindu Jew) or Jewbu (Jewish Buddhist). Pointing out that the term “Israel” means “to wrestle,” the film attempts to illustrate the struggle to maintain Jewish identity while assimilating into American culture—some Jews are kosher-abiding, ultra-orthodox believers, while others are atheists with no religious or cultural affinities to Judaism (leaving a wide variety of different positions between these two extremes). Unfortunately, The Tribe seems to be more about presenting dots then connecting them, and its tedious meta-asides (such as a pointless digression on humans walking upright) are needlessly distracting. Still, even with these shortcomings, The Tribe could prove to be a fruitful discussion starter about Jewish identity in particular and the nature of groups in general. The institutional version is packaged with “An Unorthodox Discussion Kit” featuring a 96-page “Guide from the Perplexed” (helpful) and 25 flashcards with single words on one side and images from the film on the other (which might be useful as coasters, but that's about it), this is a strong optional purchase. Aud: J, H, C, P. (R. Pitman)