Guno צְבִי
We fight, We win
Brigit Grant speaks to director Minkie Spiro about her take on Philip Roth’s dystopian novel for television
“The Plot Against America is a cautionary tale, for when a world forgets to respect inclusion and acceptance. It felt very significant to be making something that speaks of a current moment. I just never thought it would be this current.”
It was Simon who presented a revised ending to Roth’s story, which is set in an alternate American history and features a Jewish family battling to survive in 1940 as aviator hero Charles Lindbergh, a notorious antisemite and xenophobic populist becomes president and turns the nation towards fascism.
“But the story speaks to anyone who is marginal- ised. It just happens to be set in a Jewish community in Newark, New Jersey, where Roth was raised. It is really a portrait of any family that is persecuted and belittled for being different and how love within that family is tested in order to survive a horrific moment in time.”
The reaction to the series by American audiences suggests Roth would have been satisfied, although the parallels to 2020’s political quagmire make it a fearful watch. As director of the first three episodes, Minkie Spiro, a Fulbright scholar and former photo- journalist who grew up in St John’s Wood, understands the discomfort.
“Little did I know, while making it last summer, that the world was going to unfold and how discerning and relevant the story was going to become,” she says.
“The Plot Against America is a cautionary tale, for when a world forgets to respect inclusion and acceptance. It felt very significant to be making something that speaks of a current moment. I just never thought it would be this current.”
“But the story speaks to anyone who is marginal- ised. It just happens to be set in a Jewish community in Newark, New Jersey, where Roth was raised. It is really a portrait of any family that is persecuted and belittled for being different and how love within that family
is tested in order to survive a horrific moment in time.”
Having worked with a plethora of big names – including Dame Maggie Smith on Downton, Sam Rockwell and Michelle Williams on Fosse and Verdon – calling the shots does not phase the diminutive director, although she was impressed by Winona Ryder, who plays impressionable social climber Evelyn Finkel, the love interest of deluded Rabbi Bengelsdorf (played by John Turturro).
https://jewishnews.timesofisrael.com/the-united-hates-of-america/
“The Plot Against America is a cautionary tale, for when a world forgets to respect inclusion and acceptance. It felt very significant to be making something that speaks of a current moment. I just never thought it would be this current.”
It was Simon who presented a revised ending to Roth’s story, which is set in an alternate American history and features a Jewish family battling to survive in 1940 as aviator hero Charles Lindbergh, a notorious antisemite and xenophobic populist becomes president and turns the nation towards fascism.
“But the story speaks to anyone who is marginal- ised. It just happens to be set in a Jewish community in Newark, New Jersey, where Roth was raised. It is really a portrait of any family that is persecuted and belittled for being different and how love within that family is tested in order to survive a horrific moment in time.”
The reaction to the series by American audiences suggests Roth would have been satisfied, although the parallels to 2020’s political quagmire make it a fearful watch. As director of the first three episodes, Minkie Spiro, a Fulbright scholar and former photo- journalist who grew up in St John’s Wood, understands the discomfort.
“Little did I know, while making it last summer, that the world was going to unfold and how discerning and relevant the story was going to become,” she says.
“The Plot Against America is a cautionary tale, for when a world forgets to respect inclusion and acceptance. It felt very significant to be making something that speaks of a current moment. I just never thought it would be this current.”
“But the story speaks to anyone who is marginal- ised. It just happens to be set in a Jewish community in Newark, New Jersey, where Roth was raised. It is really a portrait of any family that is persecuted and belittled for being different and how love within that family
is tested in order to survive a horrific moment in time.”
Having worked with a plethora of big names – including Dame Maggie Smith on Downton, Sam Rockwell and Michelle Williams on Fosse and Verdon – calling the shots does not phase the diminutive director, although she was impressed by Winona Ryder, who plays impressionable social climber Evelyn Finkel, the love interest of deluded Rabbi Bengelsdorf (played by John Turturro).
https://jewishnews.timesofisrael.com/the-united-hates-of-america/