Faith, Friendship, Family… and the challenges of being different in America.

About

As the son of the Imam of the local Brooklyn mosque, eleven year-old Daud has to juggle the high expectations of his Father (Maz Jobrani) and his feelings of isolation and difference– even from his peers in the Muslim community. Through an innocent act of good faith, Daud inadvertently befriends a group of Jewish boys who mistake him as a fellow classmate at their orthodox school, in the neighboring Jewish community. A genuine friendship grows between Daud and Yoav, one of the Jewish boys, and his family. Unable to resist the joy of a camaraderie that he has never felt before, David, as he is known to the kids, is drawn into a complicated dilemma inspired by youthful deceit and the best of intentions.

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“. . . message of open-mindedness and tolerance.”

— Kevin Laforest, Montreal Hour

Press

Press Quotes

Dennis Harvey

“Bridging one of the world's defining sociopolitical rifts one 11-year-old at a time, quietly engaging indie David brings charm, sympathy and understatement to its microcosmic story of a young Muslim Brooklynite whose circumstances lead him to pass as Jewish.”

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George Robinson

“In David a story of interfaith friendship manages to avoid feel-good clichés.”

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Brendan Kelly

“Joel Fendelman knows what it feels like to be a different, which is part of what drew hi to the notion of making a film about cultural differences - more specifically the seemingly gigantic gap between the Muslim and Jewish communities in Brooklyn.”

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Lee J. Green

“A movie about faith in the Orthodox Jewish and Muslim communities in New York City, friendship, family and the challenges of being different in America…”

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Peter Fox

“But of all the independent films that I have screened this year, my top pick is David, directed by Joel Fendelman, a simple, yet profound tale of the journey of an eleven-year-old Muslim boy, Daud, who suddenly finds himself immersed with boys his own age at an orthodox Jewish school.”