Jewish Exponent Article

Elkins Park native wins top festival prize with controversial new film about Jewish neo-Nazi Getting under the skin of a neo-Nazi skinhead has provided heady times as well as headlines for Elkins Park's Henry Bean, whose "The Believer" captured a fervent following among the faithful at the recent Sundance Film Festival.

The reel triumph for Bean happened at the film-fest's conclusion, when "The Believer" grabbed the grand jury prize, one of the most prestigious awards in all of filmdom. The twist of this intriguing travelogue of a twisted mind comes at a hairpin curve in the plot -- the neo-Nazi is Jewish. For Bean, a Germantown Friends graduate, the central character represents the yin-yang yearning of Jews at once jaded and genuine in their queasy quest for self-discovery.

"It is a story that expresses feelings I have always had and not before been able to express," says Bean of the Jewish neo-Nazi whose hate hides "a deep involvement with Jews and Judaism." It is a devilish dichotomy, this picture of discontent that frames the life of a young man who hates his heritage, yet is defined by it. "He is the most Jewish anti-Semite that could possibly be," says Bean of Danny Balint. Which is a far cry from the filmmaker's own fierce fidelity to Judaism, given shape at Congregation Rodeph Shalom in Philadelphia and in a loving household headed by his parents, Donald and Fahnya Bean, now of Center City. Is a suspension of belief central to placing faith in the main premise of "The Believer"? Not at all, says filmmaker Bean, who credits a tragic but true story in 1964 reported by The New York Times as a source of the tsuris told by "Believer."

"The Times did a story on a youngster, a neo-Nazi, who was indeed Jewish, and he threatened to kill himself if they reported it," says Bean. As much as he stood by the vitriol he spat out about Jews and blacks, this New York neo-Nazi was good at his word. "He went back to his Nazi headquarters, put on a record of Wagner and killed himself," says Bean. The killing fields of hate are unearthed in "The Believer." There are disquieting dilemmas dissected here that don't dilute the forceful impact of this disturbing film. "The things we care about the most," says Bean, "are the things for which we feel both love and hatred." If love means never having to say you're sorry, hate is an internal, infernal dialogue that undermines understanding. "When you take hatred away from love," reasons Bean, "and have only love left, you have a diluted" emotion.

What comes out of "The Believer" is the sense of an oxymoronic accident of birth. Born Jewish, the character, Danny, played by Ryan Gosling, cradles anti-Semitism to his heart as his God-given birthright. (Jacob Green, son of Claire and Steven Green of Huntington Valley, plays the part of the younger Danny.) "My character gives virulent anti-Semitic talks early in the film that are so Jewish" in origin," says Bean, manifested in "his gestures, the enthusiasm he has -- it's a very Jewish kind of behavior." But is it a very different kind of Jewish film? "At Sundance, people came up to me and said -- and these people clearly were Jewish -- 'You have no idea how much this film means to me.'" But the path to glory is sometimes paved in the mean streets of misunderstanding. Proud of what he calls his "philo-Semitic" film, Bean scheduled a special screening for the West Coast branch of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a prominent Jewish institution acclaimed for its ardent advocacy of tolerance.

Reviewing the situation It did not go well, says the filmmaker. Some in the audience could not abide by, let alone tolerate, the film's central theme. With some in attendance attacking the film itself as anti-Semitic, they had just upped the ante for the movie's future. Believe me, says Bean, "The Believer" is far from anti-Semitic. "This is my love poem to Judaism," he says. Not everyone buys its iambic parameters. "There is a tendency among some Jews to feel that you shouldn't air your dirty laundry in public; it's a frightened attitude," avows Bean. Meet moviedom's Maytag repairman. "My film says not to be afraid at all, that everything will be fine." Bean's sense of social commentary has been influenced by talmudic commentary -- infused with a holiday spirit. "What this is," he says of "The Believer," "is really a purismschpiel. In fact, my original idea for a title was 'The Jewish Nazi: A Purimschpiel.'" Is he springing a springtime for Hitler and Germany on the public? The furor over "The Believer" belies its serious intent. Bean has a sense of humor about what he has done, even if some do not.

"Some people laugh like crazy" at the film, while "others don't find that kind of stuff funny." Funny, but Bean's bio doesn't begin to hint at the so-called hate crime he has been accused of in bringing "The Believer" to the big screen. Over the past two decades, this former Ivy Leaguer (Yale) has played ball in the big leagues -- as screenwriter for such acclaimed film fare as "Internal Affairs" and "Deep Impact." But it is "The Believer" that may have had the biggest impact on his own feelings, causing him to be even prouder of his religion. Not that he wasn't proud before. "I was able to write this story," he says, "because I'd come to appreciate my Judaism even more." From Elkins Park to Park City, Utah, site of Sundance -- with miles of mitzvot and movies in between.

Indeed, Bean's parents appreciate the life their son has scripted for himself. "My parents are fine with this," he says of their reactions to his controversial "Believer." "They are cultured people" who understand his efforts, not reading into the script that which is not there. "When my father read the script, it was clear to him that it was philo-Semitic," says Bean. Indeed, Bean's love poem is versed in the rhyme and reason that is Judaism. "Maybe it's a little too pro-Jewish," he says. "I was going for a real balance between love and hate; but it tips more toward love." He sees the seesaw reaction to his film cutting both ways, much as one would expect from a writer at the Brecht and call of intellectually stimulating scenarios. Indeed, Bean considers Brecht's "A Man's a Man" a theatrical mantra. "I saw a production of it at Plays & Players when I lived in Philadelphia," he says of the play that "flipped" him. Indeed, the Sundance honor has him dancing a whole different hora these days.

While still seeking a distributor, Bean, currently working on the mainstream "Foolproof," with Sandra Bullock and Ryan Gosling, his "Believer" star, doesn't fool himself into believing that small films will displace big features in his cannon of work. After all, Hollywood's sense of state-of-the-art, with its focus on box office more than art, is some states removed from the Utah utopia of Sundance. Which doesn't mean the accomplished filmmaker doesn't delight in the birth pangs of the Park City scenario. "If the showing of the film at Sundance was the birth, then winning the grand prize was the bris," says Bean with a chuckle of his cutting-edge accomplishment.

- Michael Elkin