Shalom Taiwan is a dreamy but realistic film with mild humor and a mixing of cultures. It features a lot of long-range shots and colorful scenery. Jewish audiences would appreciate the film because it explores the doings of an Orthodox Jewish rabbi who travels to Taiwan on a desperate mission,
Shalom Taiwan is a low-key character study with a story that combines financial strife, marital tensions, and a religious mission. The narrative works, but at times it lags. Its charms are mostly due to its protagonist’s travels and trials in Buenos Aires, New York City, and Taiwan. In fact, one of the most unusual and intriguing aspects of Shalom Taiwan is the mix of languages. Scenes ping pong between Spanish (a South American variety), English, Hebrew, and Chinese.
The story revolves around Rabbi Aaron, a youngish Chabad Lubavitcher (Orthodox Jewish) rabbi in Buenos Aires. He is ambitious and impish, trying to juggle the needs of his congregation and his family. When a financial crisis threatens to shutter his synagogue, he travels to New York City to persuade wealthy benefactors to help his cause. He strikes out in New York and then turns to China. He travels to Taiwan and gets some funding from one benefactor, a single dollar bill from another, and then gets chewed out by a third. But in the end, with his tail between his legs, he comes home and patches up things, making do in a more modest sense.
There is a subtle message that we are left with, that coming home and being flexible, “to start again,” is a way to solve your problems. It’s not earth-shattering, but it is a dose of reality. As Dorothy once said famously, “There’s no place like home.”
Along the way, we are treated to lively scenes in Manhattan (especially Times Square) and Brooklyn, including the Crown Heights neighborhood which is the center of the Chabad Lubavitch universe. (Although I’m not a Lubavitcher, I am a lifelong Brooklyn resident and Jewish, and I’m somewhat familiar with this community.) The scenes in Manhattan and Brooklyn are candid and energetic. The more exotic scenes that take place in urban as well as rural China are full of awe-inspiring moments. The use of long camera shots emphasizes the innocent-abroad feeling that Rabbi Aaron is experiencing in China.
In the lead role, Fabian Rosenthal is quite good as Rabbi Aaron. He goes from being a chirpy cheerleader for his synagogue to a wide-eyed salesman to a weary and beleaguered man weighed down by his inability to get donations, his wife’s anguish about his being away, and his failure to overcome jet lag and get meaningful slumber. He portrays woebegone quite well.
Among the more interesting minor characters are the hotel manager, a warm-hearted family man who takes pity and manages to inspire Rabbi Aaron; and Jonny, the synagogue assistant. Lai does well with her role of a frustrated wife who wants to be both modern and traditional.
This film has only the slightest of violence (off stage), just a few curse words, and there is only the mildest sexual content. It is unusual in its modesty, but it fits well in this film and with these characters. A few of the fun touches for me were the music pieces, including a surf rock instrumental version of the Sabbath evening song “Shalom Aleichem," and the rabbi’s makeshift prayer sessions conducted on airplanes and elsewhere.
Better editing would have made the movie more compelling, but with its laid-back approach to serious issues, and less-is-more aesthetic, Shalom Taiwan is a solid film. This title would fit on public and academic library shelves about contemporary Jewish life. Film festival programmers should consider this film for a Jewish film festival, and Jewish organizations such as a JCC should consider hosting a public screening of this film.