samuel-613 from Billy Lumby on Vimeo.
A short film depicting the struggles of a Chasidic Jewish man who abandons his community to eat bacon, drink alcohol and try out online dating is among eight Bafta-nominated films that will start it's tour of UK cinemas on Friday.
Samuel-613 is a 15-minute short by writer and director Billy Lumby who, after moving to Stamford Hill five years ago, was mesmerised by the daily sight of strictly Orthodox adherents wearing shtreimels and peyot, and speaking Yiddish to one another.
"It was a visually exciting experience for me," he said. "I thought it would be exciting for other people to see a culture that is under-represented in art and cinema."
Mr Lumby, who is not Jewish himself, spent the next year "immersing" himself in the community - speaking to people who have both stayed in and left the fold, wearing a kippah, and even on one occasion attempting to go "undercover" at a rally for Chasidic communities from all over Europe to talk about the threat of the internet.
The ultimate goal, he explained, was to create something "authentic and original".
"What mattered to me most was trying to make an authentic film," Mr Lumby said. "It was a long process of getting to know people. I had the script translated into Yiddish to get feedback, and I spent a lot of time developing it with people who were still in the community, as well as those who had left it."
The result is his short film, which tells the fictional tale of Shmilu, a 23-year-old Chasid, who feels stifled by his tight-knit community and moves into his own apartment, where he cuts off his peyot and sets up an online dating profile. His user name is Samuel-613.
While the central character is played by the actor Theo Barklem-Biggs, several other parts are portrayed by non-actors from Stamford Hill, including Samuel Leibowitz, who plays the protagonist's father.
