Transmitzvah (2024) Movie Script
1
There once was a place.
You already know it, childhood.
Everyone has their own.
Mine is in this shop
founded by my grandfather.
SMART & CASUAL WEAR
This is Mom, Miriam.
The queen of the house.
For her, home and business are the same.
Only the prices change.
She always brags that customers
come in looking for something
and leave with something else
because they know what they need,
but not what they want.
We can say a lot of things about Mom,
except that in life she stood idly by.
Susi and Mirna are my dad's secretaries.
Sometimes I suspect
they're a single person,
doubled up to better fulfill their duties.
NO CHECKS ACCEPTED
SMART & CASUAL WEAR
I don't know how to describe
my brother Eduardo.
He has a weird walk.
He always gets lost
in places he already knows.
He also has a bike
that he switches on and on,
but my parents won't let him use it.
Dad bought it for him,
but he said that us Jews
aren't ready to ride on two wheels yet.
Granddad is no longer here,
but he left his mark on us.
He used to bring sheep from the south
and display them in the window
for everyone to see
the quality of the material.
He bequeathed us a single phrase,
"Touch it. It's real merino wool."
Dear customers, we'll be closing soon.
Singman Fashion: Smart & Casual Wear.
Dad, on the other hand,
struggles with any interaction.
And frankly, I'd rather not
talk too much about him.
His name is Aarn, and he runs
the shop's commercial strategy.
I'm Rubn, the youngest son,
and everyone is preparing
for my bar mitzvah.
In Jewish law, it means
I'm about to step into adulthood.
I'm speaking to you now
in this borrowed voice, my childish voice,
but I'm about to turn 13,
and everything is about to change.
Very soon.
We have a problem with Rubn's party.
At the Chamber of Commerce
they asked if it was ethical.
What?
What we're doing.
Inviting people
and making them spend money.
It's not fair to add this
to the gift registry,
which will also be at my shop.
I'm not giving it to my competitors.
I don't understand.
We'll hold an event
with a required dress code, Miriam,
where the only possible place to buy
is either here or at Marn's.
If we give the gift registry
to the competition,
we're feeding the commercial spirit.
If we do it here, we're feeding ourselves.
- And if we skip the gift registry?
- You complicate people's lives.
All right.
Aren't they beautiful?
Rubn chose them.
Let me see.
They're cute! Such a fine acrylic, huh?
Great job with the glassy effect.
But they don't ring.
Yes, they ring a bit.
Not really.
Eat and don't be a nuisance.
We're a culture of symbols.
A bell is a nice message,
a powerful party favor.
Singman Fashion: Smart & Casual Wear.
One, two, three.
- Come on, Rubn, we're eating!
- Checking.
He's so cute!
Let's see what he comes up with now.
He's too sophisticated.
We're much more ordinary.
My darling!
How beautiful!
How beautiful!
Bravo!
Come and sit.
Rubn, why don't you put the suit on?
Your dad wants to see you.
Rubn?
Who's that?
Rubn isn't here.
He won't be coming back.
The second I tried on the suit,
I saw myself
entering the temple as a male.
And it seemed so
So what?
Awful. More than awful. Dishonest.
Like a scam on our community.
Even worse, a ritual scam.
Rubn.
Do you know where names come from?
Dad, I'm not Rubn.
I'm Mumy.
The bar mitzvah
is about our own decisions,
about taking responsibility
for our actions.
Miriam was 12 years old
when she saved Moses.
Son,
your name is a prophecy.
It's your soul. It's energy.
Don't you like your soul?
And what do you know about my soul?
For thousands of years
we passed on the eternal fire.
I love you. I support you.
In the name of that love,
I ask you, please,
get to the port with the name Rubn.
When you set sail, you can be Mumy.
You can call yourself whatever you like.
Toti, Chopi, Chuchi, Chichi, I don't care.
You can have sex with a panda if you want.
What's with the panda?
I'm talking about your name,
not what you do with your gender.
Honor it. I gave it to you for a reason.
You're going up to read the Torah
with the same name you received
on the day of circumcision.
I want to go up to the bimah
as Mumy Jaia, after Grandma's name,
and Singer, after the sewing machine.
You want to decide?
Then decide, Rubn. Decide.
Mumy Singer my ass!
Your name is Rubn.
Rubn.
We named him Rubn.
The first of the 12 tribes.
The son of Leah,
the least beloved of Jacob's wives.
She said, "Reuben",
behold a son."
Take a look at the Book of Genesis.
Look at Adam. One day he woke up
and named everything.
He's your son. It's different.
It's not a sweater with a label
that you take out of the shop.
- Miriam.
- Yes.
For him to be here,
for me to have an erection,
my brain commanded the organ
to become firm and penetrate you.
He was first conceived here.
"Rubn." Then he grew in your womb.
Yes.
Then any son, until the last of his days,
is a command of his father's brain.
Thank you, Aarn,
for acknowledging my part.
Can I have a say?
This is not new.
Didn't you notice
how easily he wears heels?
"A mother is blind to her own son."
"A mother is blind to her own son."
Rubn, are you okay?
Mumy, do you need anything?
Do you really want to have a bat
as a girl?
Help me.
I, Rubn Singman,
with the suit of my parents' dreams,
which, this afternoon,
was tailored with pins to my body,
which, until a while ago,
I thought was my own.
Dad,
dressed as a son of your community,
I say to you,
I'm abandoning my party.
You can shove your bar mitzvah
up your asses.
You.
What's behind Mumy Singer's voice?
The kosher diva.
Mumy Singer, ladies and gentlemen!
Mumy, how are you prepping
for your comeback?
Well, I'm going back home.
In any case, Argentina is one
of the world's best places to be a Jew.
My true origin is the mystery.
I've always had a very good ear,
and that's why I do music.
I even change my accent
whenever I stay too long in one place.
My greatest motivation is the dream.
- And the dream is?
- To make it happen.
You've made Yiddish fashionable
all over the world.
Why Yiddish?
What would you say to those
who think it's a chant linked to the past?
I'd say that
that going back
is the only way to move forward.
I turned lamentation into a party.
A Clinical Approach to Virility.
It reviews the Freudian legacy
under a gender perspective.
- It's great. Very interesting.
- I guess.
And extremely difficult, right?
You've been studying it for years.
What do we do?
Should we pack it in a bag?
Or will you carry it with you as usual?
I never thought I'd go back.
We'll go together. You're not alone.
I wanted to travel light,
but everything's a burden.
Take it easy, Mumy. I've got you.
You can pack up to 23 kilos of angst.
Mumy.
Kids! Sandra!
Come on in!
Come in.
Welcome to our mansion.
We've been fixing it
since we moved in, little by little.
- Little by little?
- Welcome.
Welcome, everyone!
My hands are wet.
I'm finishing up some stuff.
- I'll be with you in a minute.
- Come.
The damp patch is on purpose, to remind us
that we're still fixing the house.
Come on in.
Where are the kids?
Don't tell me they aren't here!
Not today!
I've lost my kids just when fame
has knocked on our door!
- Here they are!
- Look!
- I can't believe how cute you are!
- Bravo!
You're all grown up! You're so big!
- Guess what I brought?
- What?
Presents. Sergio.
Presents.
Gifts.
Let's see.
This is for Jaia.
- Thanks, Sergio.
- Thanks!
- This is so pretty!
- This one here is for Len.
Look, the Builder!
- And what's for me?
- Eduardo!
- No! Oh, this!
- Show me.
- You don't need to bring anything!
- Wow!
- These are expensive.
- Unbelievable! Look.
Isn't this nice?
- Did you do these?
- Yes.
- You know what?
- What?
I'll put them in my dressing room.
It'll remind me of you at work.
Yeah.
Oh, you're so beautiful, really.
- Have you talked to Mumy yet?
- It's not the right time, Sandra.
Well, it's never the time
for this sort of thing, you know?
Remember, life goes by
in the blink of an eye.
Everyone asks her for favors.
You're her brother, and you can't ask her?
They only just arrived from Spain.
They're jet-lagged.
Hey, let's wait a little,
and then I'll talk to her.
For one second, I'm begging you
What?
To play God for a minute, huh?
So that we can get out of this situation
as amicably as possible.
Why don't you do it?
I already did everything.
There's no more left in me.
On the other hand, you never did a thing.
I'm sure you have
some tricks up your sleeve.
You look a lot like your brother.
It's outstanding.
It's as if you're one person split in two.
We have the same parents,
we went to the same school, but
I can hardly believe he's my brother.
Are you sure
you don't want to see your parents?
We still have plenty of time.
How sad.
- Visiting your family?
- No, what you said.
I thought you'd want to bang me.
"Bang"? You never use that word.
"Bang," "fuck," same thing.
Mumy, you did shows in Milan, in New York.
Why not sing
at the Buenos Aires San Martn Theater?
It was my first dream, you know?
Should I turn the light off or not?
So you can read.
No, leave it on.
Tomorrow I'll get up early
and go to the Lacanian Association
to do some networking.
Mumy Singer isn't the only one who has
things to take care of in this city.
Notes to self
I'm looking at my place from outside,
my life from outside.
Practicing for when I have to come
and pick up the kids
and wait for them outside
and ring the bell.
I'll have to get used to ringing the bell.
And let them know before coming.
Always let them know before coming.
RUBN
"BEHOLD A SON"
SAN MARTN THEATER
SMART & CASUAL WEAR
Dad?
How are you doing?
Trying to survive.
And you?
Same.
Too bad you had to come and see me.
It's the second time
I've ruined one of your shows.
It'll seem like
I want attention for myself.
Have you ever listened to me sing?
Always.
Even in silence.
As if that music
were coming from my own head
and was written by my own hands and heart.
I love how you sing "In the Oven."
You remember?
Of course.
- You sing just like Grandma.
- Like Grandma?
She was my biggest fan.
I owe her my self-centeredness too.
Mumy,
I'll never forgive myself.
I've forgiven you, Dad.
Even with your total forgiveness,
it's not enough for me.
Since that day, I've stopped living.
And I dedicated myself
to being a survivor parent.
No, Dad.
You were the best father you could be.
I'm sorry.
I rushed here,
so I didn't remove my makeup.
What?
The party favor we'd chosen.
Want to take it with you?
What for?
In case we lose each other again.
So I can find you.
But what should I do with this, Dad?
Hang it around my neck like a cow?
It doesn't even ring. It's plastic.
You're wrong.
The bell doesn't carry the sound.
The ear of the listener does.
Take it, Mumy.
Your mission is to make the bell ring.
My little girl.
Such nice hair.
Amen.
Take whatever you want. I'm done.
I don't even have the strength
to open the store.
What will I do if I don't open the store?
I'm so tired, exhausted.
I feel so exhausted.
And your brother too. He's so tired.
Some people know exactly what they want.
Well, your brother doesn't.
Mumy, aren't you gonna talk to me?
Forgive me, my girl.
Forgive us all, sweetheart.
Mumy, are you ready?
The Mumys are exhausted.
They need to eat something.
Let them get used to it.
Without their voices,
they'll starve even more.
Enough of that.
I'm done.
- I wanna go back.
- Why don't you take a nap?
It'll do you good.
You know what my dad used to tell me
whenever I was in pain?
That I was growing up.
That if I lay down a moment,
it would go away.
Had I done that,
I wouldn't have become Mumy Singer.
I'd love to get up and sing like Ariel,
the fucking Little Mermaid!
That's not how it works.
Stop!
I've lost my voice.
Do you know what that means?
There is no stronger presence
than the one of the dead.
You can argue with the living.
With the dead, you can only make peace.
It's not a coincidence
that this would happen now.
What did your dad say
during that argument?
"Mumy Singer my ass!"
I guess you're regressing back
to your child's voice.
It's Rubn's voice.
What do you mean?
A child has no voice of their own.
The father speaks through their voice.
Rubn's voice brings your dad back to life
so he won't die.
No.
That's impossible, Sergio.
Mumy, this is not a gender issue.
It's a choice
between adult Mumy and child Mumy.
Isn't that what a bar mitzvah
is all about?
You know what I need right now?
To have a pastrami sandwich
with my brother.
I need you to help me fix something.
Yes, tell me.
It's too personal, Eduardo.
No, it's too much responsibility.
What? I haven't said a word.
What about Sergio?
And Mom?
I need your help, Eduardo.
It's so personal,
I can only do it with you.
I want to have my bat mitzvah.
What?
You heard me.
You do that when you turn 13.
Girls have it at 12,
when they supposedly stop being girls,
then you can have it whenever you please.
Okay, so you did your research, Mumy.
What should I do? Just go and have it.
I can't do it alone.
I need to do this with you, brother.
Will it take long? Because
there's a lot going on in my head, Mumy.
Eduardo
I want to have a fucking bat.
Will you come with me?
Lacan once said,
"Seize your legacy."
What you're doing is beautiful, Mumy.
It's a big step.
I'm leaving, Sergio.
You're leaving me?
I'm not leaving you. You're staying.
I'm leaving.
Thanks for letting me know.
"Wherever you can't love, don't stay."
Well, I'm staying
with people who love me.
With the family, at the store, right here.
Unlike you, the perpetual runaway.
There's nothing more dangerous
than a reader.
You made me hate books, you know?
You made me feel like a singing idiot.
Here's everything you asked for.
The handbooks for the bar mitzvah,
the books of Torah.
Here's the written part.
Here's the spoken part.
How is it spoken if it's written?
Sometimes the commentary
is more interesting than the text.
Take a look
at Rashi's interpretation of Dinah,
the first trans Jew of our history.
Yes, Jacob's daughter that became
a trans girl in her mother's womb.
That's right.
Her mother prayed so fervently,
she transformed her male embryo.
Never underestimate a mother's love.
If you can't convince a rabbi with this,
I don't know.
In any case, there are few references
to women in the Torah.
- You can count them on one hand.
- on one hand.
- Yes.
- Good. Okay, then.
Ready?
Sweetheart, you have everything?
Everything.
Are they going very far?
A trip to the Once neighborhood
is an eight-street exile.
Is it true?
What?
What you can't get in Once,
you can't get anywhere,
even if it's a rabbi.
Let's go.
- Here.
- Yes.
We thought it'd be nice to leave it as is,
like a museum of your stuff.
Grandma's home,
Mumy's first place of exile.
Are you okay?
Didn't you think
of selling this or something?
Yes, we did.
But the inheritance wasn't properly done,
and then renting the place out
wasn't easy either. So
The truth is, Dad started using it
for his stuff, you know?
No! Look!
No! Look!
Look, Mumy!
What?
- The walkie-talkies!
- What?
- The walkies.
- What do you mean?
The walkie-talkies Grandma gave us.
I can't believe it.
You won't remember. You were young.
Grandma gave them to us,
but without batteries.
We went to buy them with Dad.
Turns out the batteries
were more expensive than the toy.
We had the toy but no batteries.
Dad would say
Don't you remember? Dad used to say,
"Soon there'll be imported batteries,
imported batteries, imported batteries."
Well, the batteries never came.
Grandma said
that we didn't need batteries,
that us siblings
would communicate somehow.
Do you know what I have?
The bar mitzvah course handbooks.
The originals.
Do you want to practice a little
for your bat?
No?
He'd say I was devoted to TV.
And it was true. I was so depressed,
all I'd ever do was watch TV.
I also registered
for rikudim classes at Hebraica.
It was worse.
I was looking for safe refuge,
and rejection was all I found.
They forced you out of rikudim classes?
And out of singing lessons. Go figure.
Another women's sport saved me.
Wing Chun.
One day, after rikudim class,
I saw a tatami
there on a basketball court.
And there was a man with beautiful hands.
Papadopulus.
He taught me to be aware
of the air going in and out of my body.
One day, we made a circle,
and it was my turn.
There was Rubn.
He gathered momentum
and kicked with all his might.
When he turned around,
the wooden board was intact.
So Papadopulus looked at me,
but he didn't see Rubn.
He looked Mumy in the eye.
You've become so famous.
He looked at me.
Well deserved.
You had a lot to do with it.
Although I really
haven't thanked you enough.
Why are you here, Mumy?
Tell me about Rubn.
When I thought I'd lost him, suddenly,
he knocked at my door again.
And I think I'm ready
to open that door this time.
May I?
You're on the right track.
It's a long journey.
But you aren't walking it alone.
The road goes forward,
but the journey is backwards
because it ends
where it starts.
I don't understand.
The answer
can be found in your other half.
And what does it say?
I can't read that.
WIG WORLD
We're open until 6:00 p.m.
Bye.
Lucho Levy.
I knew I'd find you here.
It wasn't that hard.
Some of us didn't go away.
Are you happy or what?
I don't want to talk about it.
It's indecent.
You can talk
about your happiness out loud.
No one can take it away from you.
Come here.
Let me introduce you.
Mumy, this is Lucho, my husband.
Lucho, this is Mumy and her brother.
Eduardo.
- Hello.
- Hi.
I don't get it.
You guys have the same name?
We do.
Someone chose
the same prophecy for us both.
Don't you get confused?
We're in love,
which means being a bit confused.
Okay, anyway
Grandma's walkie-talkies!
These devices led to a massive breakdown.
Grandma said we had communication issues,
so she gave us the walkie-talkies,
but without batteries.
These need lithium batteries. They don't
Nine volts.
They don't make these anymore.
- We don't carry them.
- No.
No, and there's no
You don't?
Not even for Mumy Singer?
There is no market price for them.
No, there's no price. It's
It's so
Okay, listen.
The price doesn't matter, Lucho.
I thought you may have something
in your warehouse.
Great. Would you hold this for me?
We'll be right back.
Behave.
This is human hair. It's excellent.
Look. They're all natural.
Absolutely everything.
This is a secret network
connecting warehouses in Once.
Everything's connected underground.
In case of an attack
Come here.
Are you nervous?
No. Are you?
That's a relief.
It felt like you were staring at me,
and I wouldn't know how to react.
I like men, but that doesn't mean
that I like all men.
I especially don't like
married hetero men.
Even if you're about to divorce.
How can you tell?
As soon as you walked in,
I said to myself, "This man is lost",
desperately looking
for what's in front of him."
You don't know how to tell your parents
or how you'll relate with your kids
after the divorce.
No, that's something
I don't know about. I couldn't.
The uneasiness is solid ground.
You get home, you get a nasty look.
Everything's okay, but
No, this is
It's like an abyss.
Call her now and tell her.
No, I can't do that.
I can't, no.
She asked me to come up with a proposal.
And I
I don't have one yet.
Some simply jump into the swimming pool.
And others
get in slowly.
I can't even find the swimming pool.
Guys.
What are we doing? Can anyone tell me?
- What?
- Rehearsing the choreography.
We've talked about this, guys.
We close our eyes
because we visualize Jerusalem.
If God manifests Himself,
we can't see Him.
The intention, guys.
The intention we do things with.
Otherwise, it's an empty gesture.
What's wrong?
Are we sad because Mumy left?
- Yes.
- Yeah.
And what are we gonna do?
Sink into sadness?
- Yes.
- No!
No.
We're rehearsing a dance for her bat.
And how are we doing it?
With joy or with sadness?
- With joy?
- Joy?
With joy.
If we do it with joy, we do it better,
and we make the act we're doing
even greater.
This has a purpose.
It's not just moving your legs.
Okay, from the top.
You're filling the house
with poetry, guys.
Now I know how it feels to be Mumy.
How are you doing, Garfunkel?
The Singman brothers!
You are
different.
Your skin is
brighter.
We're all a bit different, Garfunkel.
Thanks.
Okay, Garfunkel, we're here
with a rather urgent issue.
We have some unfinished business.
My sister wants to celebrate
her bat mitzvah.
Bat.
With a
With a T.
Boys born as boys
have certain precepts
that those born as girls don't have,
such as circumcision,
wearing the tefillin,
having a bar mitzvah.
It's a biological issue.
And girls do a bat mitzvah.
We're not talking about biology,
Garfunkel.
And I won't give you a sex education class
in the synagogue.
Right?
Rubn has no chance
of having a bat mitzvah,
no matter how you may feel.
The Torah can't take
your emotions into account.
Otherwise, it wouldn't be the Torah.
It's the law.
It must remain invariable
for things to change.
And what about a trans mitzvah?
A what?
A trans mitzvah?
And how did you come up with that name?
As a trademark, it's excellent.
Did you copyright it?
Garfunkel, are there any colleagues
who might be a little more understanding?
There's no chance of a trans mitzvah.
Listen to me.
No girl's more Jewish than me.
So it's your loss.
I'll take my body elsewhere.
- Rubn...
- Let's go, Eduardo.
We've all tolerated you here.
You're the one who left.
I don't need to be tolerated.
I'm neither gluten nor lactose.
Bye, Garfunkel.
You're such a bore.
Sandra, this is easy.
Look, Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday
- No, your proposal, Eduardo.
- No, Monday...
- What's your proposal?
- Wait.
Let me think about the proposal.
I haven't figured it out yet.
Okay, think about it.
You must come up with something.
Okay, fine.
Look, Sandra, it's not a proposal.
It's a far more complex
and comprehensive problem.
There are three important issues.
First, alimony.
We'll talk about it later.
As for the days, which are a lot,
we have to see how to
And the car, we only have one.
And then special things
like winter and summer holidays.
And the issue of birthdays.
Well, I think we can
spend birthdays together.
It'll be good for the kids
to have both parents,
even if it may be weird for us.
Hello, it's Mario, the janitor.
I don't want to intrude,
but someone came looking for you.
He was wearing a kippah.
Maybe a cousin, I guess.
Is your sister okay?
She's fine, yeah.
I'm glad.
By any chance,
do you have a small wooden board?
- A small wooden board?
- Yes.
A board to block a door,
stoke a fire, change someone's fate.
- Perfect.
- Does this work for you?
There's nothing more real
than pain, is there?
Mumy, this is Graciela Cohen.
She is your benei mitzvah planner.
My what?
"Benei mitzvah"
or "they mitzvah" is a celebration
that's ungendered or gender-fluid.
Fluid-ish gender.
"Benei mitzvah" means "us."
We avoid the pronouns "son," "daughter."
- We're avoiding...
- But I am the daughter of my father.
Aarn Singman.
We consider ourselves children of life.
No, you don't understand.
I am the daughter of my father.
And he's dead.
You can do as you like with Judaism,
your Judaism, whatever you want.
- Really?
- You can be the Jew you wanna be.
I didn't know I could be whoever I wanted.
- You can wear tefillin.
- I'm so stupid.
We embrace the gender you choose and like.
You can wear tefillin
all day long if you wish.
- Day in and day out.
- Of course, we
- This is the right place for you.
- Sure.
- So much freedom.
- Your happiness is very important.
To us, that's the tree of life.
Heavenly.
I believe that you're fake Jews.
What does being a Jew mean to you?
Wearing a label?
You're suggesting a shortcut,
and that's not my style.
I want to link up again, to reconnect.
Where did you find her?
- Listen
- From a rainbow?
Sometimes I wonder if Eduardo and Mumy
had been a single person,
how would they be? What kind of being?
If when we become parents
to several children,
we lose parts of ourselves.
Right?
This is our family register.
We're all here.
Aarn
There's Eduardo.
There's Rubn, Mumy.
And John the Baptist.
Aarn wanted to name him after the doctor,
if the doctor saved him.
Can you imagine?
A John the Baptist Singman.
I didn't know I could get pregnant.
That's why Mumy was born
so many years later.
I wonder if that son
I never carried to full-term,
who was never present
if John the Baptist didn't cause
Eduardo and Mumy to never fully adapt.
To be honest,
I blame myself a lot.
You're not responsible
for anything that happened.
I'd like to know
where all this comes from.
The origin.
What origin?
The origin is lost in what's been founded.
I don't get that.
- Picture this office.
- Yes.
We want to know its origin.
We've got the blueprints,
the drawings you made as you planned it,
the budget for its remodeling,
this staircase.
Reconstructing it in advance
is not possible.
If it were, would that make sense?
Therefore, there is no origin.
There is, but it's much better
because we reinvent it every time.
God never gives people burdens
they can't carry.
We must embrace
this principle from the Talmud
and treat each person
according to their gender.
In Mumy's case,
since she's a woman, we'd have a bat.
Was the call difficult?
- The chuppah
- The call was in your name.
symbolizes Abraham's first
Eduardo, I'm bored.
The focus is on inviting, gathering
I'm terribly bored.
I thought your life was an amusement park.
What can we play?
In addition, Mumy
What games did we play as kids?
She's the queen of Yiddish
Morse.
I just saw you!
Oh no. No.
Paso Street.
Follow the sound of the truck. Over.
Chiribim, Chiribom?
Everything's so beautiful here.
So? What's my prize?
It's there.
I go away
Where the song may take me
I return to my street
I go away where the song may take me
Where the song may take me
I return to my street
With the voice of my dreams
Mitzvah, mitzvah mitzvah
Mitzvah, mitzvah mitzvah
The prophet listens silently
My voice in my dream
I return to my street
To sing my sadness away
Listen to the silence
My voice in my dream
I go, I go so far away
Wherever the song will take me
To sing my sadness away
I dream, I dream, I dream
To sing my sadness away
That is my dream
I go back to my street
Welcome, son.
What are you doing here?
I have a message for you.
Eduardo and I thought
Eduardo and you?
You think as one?
Wait, Mumy. Listen to him.
All his life,
Aarn tried to fix that night.
He was obsessed with finding a solution.
In his despair,
he looked up the meaning of "Reuben"
in gematria, Hebrew numerology.
"Reu" means "to see."
"Ben" means "son."
Reuben is the son seen by God.
"To see a son."
"But my son feels like a daughter,"
thought Aarn.
This thought led to the only creative act
he had in his life.
He changed a letter
of the ancient Hebrew alphabet
and invented bat, reu bat.
"To see a daughter."
He estimated the energy
carried by both words,
a ballpark estimate,
and the difference
between reu ben and reu bat was 350.
He looked up 350 in numerology
and found the word shimut.
"Conversion."
Rubn gave him the clue
that led him to reveal the secret.
What secret?
That fate doesn't lie in one's name,
but in one's dream.
Behind Rubn,
Mumy's dream was already lying
as a return to the prophecy.
Dad always knew that you were right, Mumy.
That you should've had a bat.
He didn't know how to tell you this.
As a woman, you,
according to the mysteries of Kabbalah...
No.
I want to celebrate
my bar mitzvah for Rubn.
Not Mumy.
But for Rubn.
No, wait.
When you were Rubn,
you wanted to have it as Mumy.
Now that you're Mumy
You want to drive me crazy?
We consulted 50 rabbis.
I want to celebrate it for Rubn.
Mumy will be an instrument. That's it.
No way.
No bar mitzvah, Mumy.
You can't have a bar mitzvah.
Forget it. We're having a bat.
And according to renowned authorities
in trans issues...
What authorities?
Who authorizes who?
Who the fuck has the authority?
Great, you want to be
the spectators of my dream,
but this doesn't entitle you to interfere.
And least of all to have a say.
Spectators?
You think that we're waiting for you
to come on stage to applaud you?
You're so wrong, Mumy. So wrong.
You've been treating me like shit
for days.
Sergio, Mom, the dancers,
you do this to everyone.
Don't talk to me like that.
I am Mumy Singer, you know?
And I am Eduardo Singman. Singman!
My last name is worthless
because it's Dad's?
Because I didn't change it?
Look, we'd send you pictures of the shop,
and you only replied
saying that the window looked awful.
- That's a lie! No.
- No, it's true!
No.
You're very hurt,
but that doesn't mean you can harm.
I'm hurt?
What about you?
Have you looked at yourself?
What do you have?
Some sort of job?
Some sort of marriage?
You don't even try.
- You're crossing the line.
- I'm not.
I'm your older brother.
You're crossing the line.
Aarn's legacy was too heavy
to be carried over directly.
For that, he needed an intermediary.
Someone disposable, like me.
To convey such a valuable message.
Now you have it, Mumy,
and Eduardo has it too.
Do whatever you want with it.
Know what? This board is of no use to me.
It has a prophecy engraved on it.
- A prophecy?
- Yes, a prophecy.
Can you read it?
Do you know the allegory
that Walter Benjamin told Ernst Bloch?
Walter? No. Not that one.
A rabbi, a true Kabbalist,
he said that
to restore the kingdom of peace,
you don't need to destroy everything.
To start a new world, a little push,
a cup, a tree, a stone is enough.
But that nudge is so difficult
and so hard to measure
that humans can't do it.
So they're waiting for the Messiah.
The Messiah?
And do you know when He will come?
When?
When we no longer need Him.
We are the Messiah.
Abulafia said it,
"I am Him, and He is me."
It's on the inside.
No third party will come and save us.
It's a state of mind, get it?
The Abulafia?
- Abulafia.
- Abulafia, from Toledo?
- Abulafia.
- The boss.
Abulafia.
What do you have there?
Nothing, just pigeons.
I rescue them from the streets.
This one is blind.
How can you tell it's blind?
A virus ate away its two eyes.
If I take it to the streets, it won't fly.
The harriers would eat it.
Will it get any better?
No.
So how does it go on?
Well, blind.
Here.
Singman Fashion.
Welcome to Singman Fashion.
Touch it. It's real merino wool.
Miriam, with all due respect,
I have a proposal to make.
What is it? What is it now?
I'd like to take you out for coffee.
Why go out when we can have it here?
We haven't been out
since Aarn passed away.
You're right.
Is there a cozy caf or ptisserie
you like to go to?
And what will we tell the Mumys?
We'll leave them a note.
"We'll be right back.
We went out to spend money."
Perfect.
Come on, Mumy. Let's be friends again.
We were pretty stressed the other day.
I couldn't explain myself properly.
That's why I brought Dad's file.
I want you to see it with your own eyes.
Yes?
Here's a guy that Dad found
who integrated everything
within the margins. Get it?
What wasn't there, what didn't fit,
the rabbi here, he linked it together.
He linked it as in "religion." Understand?
This is the only guy
who can solve our conundrum.
You understand?
Look at this.
Dad did all this?
How old is this man?
He's ageless.
I don't know.
I don't get it.
Do you remember that night in Hebraica?
In the swimming pool?
Where did you go?
- This way.
- This way. And where did I go?
- Where did I go?
- That way.
Well, they seem like opposites, right?
Those arrows that seem like opposites,
if they go on and on, they meet again
at one point and form a circle,
a circle of unity.
That's the symbol of Abulafia.
Do you remember Abulafia?
- Abulafia?
- I told you about him.
The mystic from the 13th century.
Abulafia who?
Mumy, the direction we go doesn't matter.
We always get to the origin.
We're always in the same place.
This is crazy.
There are no opposites, Mumy.
There's no bar, no bat.
It's a circle.
There's transmutation.
We must go.
- We need to go, Mumy.
- Where?
- To the circle.
- What circle?
To the center of the circle.
But where is this center?
In Toledo.
That's the only place
where you can have your bat.
The place we were expelled from
500 years ago.
What? What's this?
Two tickets to Madrid, Barajas.
We leave tomorrow at 9:50.
Are you crazy?
That's my present to you, Mumy.
Wait. How did you get this, Eduardo?
I paid for them.
I bought them with the savings
I was keeping for my divorce.
Mumy, I want to go.
I want you to come with me.
I've never been on a plane.
I'm going.
If you want to come,
if you want to bring little Rubn,
if both of you want to come
Are you gonna use it?
What?
The travel kit they gave us.
No, take it.
- Are you sure?
- Yes.
Now you have one for each of the kids.
All right. What are we waiting for?
For the churros.
How was your flight?
Freddy!
Churros.
I love you!
I thought this dream was in economy class.
Yes, that was the original plan,
but traveling with Mumy
is an ongoing upgrade.
People come here in search of light,
and I say, "Beware of the light."
Me? I want glasses, the best sunglasses.
You shouldn't take any risks
and venture off by yourself,
even if you're Mumy Singer.
You need someone to make arrangements.
And that's me, Freddy.
- Did you find him, Freddy?
- The mystic?
- Yes, Abulafia's disciple.
- I'm on it.
You're our contact point
with the divine, Freddy.
Great, I thought I was just your agent.
Hermits can be found anywhere,
even in Finland.
- How will we find him?
- When you see him, you'll sing.
Otherwise, he could sing to you.
If we want a hermit to come out
of his cave, Mumy must sing.
- I love you, Freddy.
- And I love you.
You take the back seat.
You sold a show?
Oh, it's just for some friends.
Mumy, it won't hurt you!
I told you I wasn't singing, Freddy!
This stop is also part of your journey.
Mumy, it's the last push
for everything to change.
What is this?
Sorry.
Here.
- Hi, Freddy.
- Hello.
Mumy.
We're expecting 250 guests,
but no one is here yet.
And the bride?
What is she saying?
Lots of people won't be able to make it.
We weren't able to get married in Israel
like we wanted. Understand.
Mumy.
What?
"Mumy, sing, please."
"So that people may find us."
"So that we can finally get married."
All is part of the journey,
even if you can't see it, Mumy.
The first step to finding oneself
is getting lost in exile.
When someone is lost, that's a good thing.
And I'm in this circle for a reason.
And you should sing.
I can't sing, Freddy. I simply can't.
Eduardo.
Today we celebrate love
between this beautiful couple.
You are such a beautiful couple.
Congratulations.
I hope you have beautiful love,
life-long love.
I myself had love for many years.
And I know it will last forever.
Today I'd like to dedicate this song
to that love.
When you were born
I was barely six
It was such a joy
I'd soon have a brother
And you were born at ten past nine
One morning by the end of May
And my excitement was such
That I held you in my arms
I had completely forgotten
That I wanted a brother
As I grew up
I always wanted to be close to you
I felt you were big
Although you were only ten
And by following you, I started to walk
The path that you signaled me
And today, from my childhood to my youth
I have memories that won't fade away
That I carry with me
My beloved brother
Siblings in good and bad times
Always together, always close
Without asking anything in return
Siblings in sweet times and bitter ones
We learned to listen to each other
And to understand each other instantly
We are together
And that hasn't changed
Down the same path
Fighting for what we love
I thank God I still count on you
Every step of the way
Because next to you I learned to live...
Abulafia will appear
somewhere in those mountains.
Are you sure this is the place?
- We came to Toledo for nothing, Eduardo.
- No.
He will only exit his cave
if he hears one voice,
a sound that he finds worthwhile.
What sound?
Chiribin!
Chiribon!
I've been waiting for you
for eight centuries.
We need to talk.
Are you Abulafia or one of his disciples?
What's the difference?
We talked to a lot of rabbis,
and none of them were the right one.
There's nothing impeding your ceremony.
You will be here
next Thursday at 7:30 a.m.
You'll gather a group of 10,000 women
dressed in white.
Is this a women's minyan?
The use of tefillin,
is it something she could do,
or is it only reserved for men?
Those are details.
Tiny details.
We don't reduce God to details.
The Creator, Elokim
My God!
I saw you coming,
and I saw a flame circle around you.
I contemplated
your fraternal love in ecstasy.
In the name of Hashem, Adonai, Elokim.
The Creator.
Come on in, my darling.
Sandra, I wanted to tell you
everything's so beautiful here.
The landscape, can you hear it?
I'm not sure whether you can hear it.
Everything's so beautiful,
you wouldn't recognize me.
Sandra, I have a proposal for you.
It's quite simple.
Let's stop ruining each other's lives.
Come on!
Come.
The mystic couldn't make it.
What do you mean he couldn't?
But he sent this group of women.
You have something of mine.
Yes.
Your voice.
That's impossible.
Mine is a child's voice,
and you're all grown up.
I like your body.
It's gorgeous.
- Would you give me back my walkie-talkies?
- Of course.
And the other one?
This is for you.
Touch it. It's real merino wool.
Listen.
Everything will be fine.
Don't worry about a thing.
Even the best and the worst singer
sing just the same.
- How?
- As best they can.
Hello. Where are you?
Over and out.
All right, we're on our way.
Order delivered.
What's your Jewish name?
I don't have one.
Will you give me one?
Yes, maybe one starting with an "M."
It could be Malca, "queen,"
or Metuk, "sweet."
You do have one, right?
Yes, of course.
I'm Ariel. Ariel Ben Aarn.
Ariel.
Ariel is beautiful.
Can I borrow it?
You're the only person in the world
I'd lend my name to.
Thank you.
SMART & CASUAL WEAR
My voice
Your voice
Ours
The dream is that it happens
There once was a place.
You already know it, childhood.
Everyone has their own.
Mine is in this shop
founded by my grandfather.
SMART & CASUAL WEAR
This is Mom, Miriam.
The queen of the house.
For her, home and business are the same.
Only the prices change.
She always brags that customers
come in looking for something
and leave with something else
because they know what they need,
but not what they want.
We can say a lot of things about Mom,
except that in life she stood idly by.
Susi and Mirna are my dad's secretaries.
Sometimes I suspect
they're a single person,
doubled up to better fulfill their duties.
NO CHECKS ACCEPTED
SMART & CASUAL WEAR
I don't know how to describe
my brother Eduardo.
He has a weird walk.
He always gets lost
in places he already knows.
He also has a bike
that he switches on and on,
but my parents won't let him use it.
Dad bought it for him,
but he said that us Jews
aren't ready to ride on two wheels yet.
Granddad is no longer here,
but he left his mark on us.
He used to bring sheep from the south
and display them in the window
for everyone to see
the quality of the material.
He bequeathed us a single phrase,
"Touch it. It's real merino wool."
Dear customers, we'll be closing soon.
Singman Fashion: Smart & Casual Wear.
Dad, on the other hand,
struggles with any interaction.
And frankly, I'd rather not
talk too much about him.
His name is Aarn, and he runs
the shop's commercial strategy.
I'm Rubn, the youngest son,
and everyone is preparing
for my bar mitzvah.
In Jewish law, it means
I'm about to step into adulthood.
I'm speaking to you now
in this borrowed voice, my childish voice,
but I'm about to turn 13,
and everything is about to change.
Very soon.
We have a problem with Rubn's party.
At the Chamber of Commerce
they asked if it was ethical.
What?
What we're doing.
Inviting people
and making them spend money.
It's not fair to add this
to the gift registry,
which will also be at my shop.
I'm not giving it to my competitors.
I don't understand.
We'll hold an event
with a required dress code, Miriam,
where the only possible place to buy
is either here or at Marn's.
If we give the gift registry
to the competition,
we're feeding the commercial spirit.
If we do it here, we're feeding ourselves.
- And if we skip the gift registry?
- You complicate people's lives.
All right.
Aren't they beautiful?
Rubn chose them.
Let me see.
They're cute! Such a fine acrylic, huh?
Great job with the glassy effect.
But they don't ring.
Yes, they ring a bit.
Not really.
Eat and don't be a nuisance.
We're a culture of symbols.
A bell is a nice message,
a powerful party favor.
Singman Fashion: Smart & Casual Wear.
One, two, three.
- Come on, Rubn, we're eating!
- Checking.
He's so cute!
Let's see what he comes up with now.
He's too sophisticated.
We're much more ordinary.
My darling!
How beautiful!
How beautiful!
Bravo!
Come and sit.
Rubn, why don't you put the suit on?
Your dad wants to see you.
Rubn?
Who's that?
Rubn isn't here.
He won't be coming back.
The second I tried on the suit,
I saw myself
entering the temple as a male.
And it seemed so
So what?
Awful. More than awful. Dishonest.
Like a scam on our community.
Even worse, a ritual scam.
Rubn.
Do you know where names come from?
Dad, I'm not Rubn.
I'm Mumy.
The bar mitzvah
is about our own decisions,
about taking responsibility
for our actions.
Miriam was 12 years old
when she saved Moses.
Son,
your name is a prophecy.
It's your soul. It's energy.
Don't you like your soul?
And what do you know about my soul?
For thousands of years
we passed on the eternal fire.
I love you. I support you.
In the name of that love,
I ask you, please,
get to the port with the name Rubn.
When you set sail, you can be Mumy.
You can call yourself whatever you like.
Toti, Chopi, Chuchi, Chichi, I don't care.
You can have sex with a panda if you want.
What's with the panda?
I'm talking about your name,
not what you do with your gender.
Honor it. I gave it to you for a reason.
You're going up to read the Torah
with the same name you received
on the day of circumcision.
I want to go up to the bimah
as Mumy Jaia, after Grandma's name,
and Singer, after the sewing machine.
You want to decide?
Then decide, Rubn. Decide.
Mumy Singer my ass!
Your name is Rubn.
Rubn.
We named him Rubn.
The first of the 12 tribes.
The son of Leah,
the least beloved of Jacob's wives.
She said, "Reuben",
behold a son."
Take a look at the Book of Genesis.
Look at Adam. One day he woke up
and named everything.
He's your son. It's different.
It's not a sweater with a label
that you take out of the shop.
- Miriam.
- Yes.
For him to be here,
for me to have an erection,
my brain commanded the organ
to become firm and penetrate you.
He was first conceived here.
"Rubn." Then he grew in your womb.
Yes.
Then any son, until the last of his days,
is a command of his father's brain.
Thank you, Aarn,
for acknowledging my part.
Can I have a say?
This is not new.
Didn't you notice
how easily he wears heels?
"A mother is blind to her own son."
"A mother is blind to her own son."
Rubn, are you okay?
Mumy, do you need anything?
Do you really want to have a bat
as a girl?
Help me.
I, Rubn Singman,
with the suit of my parents' dreams,
which, this afternoon,
was tailored with pins to my body,
which, until a while ago,
I thought was my own.
Dad,
dressed as a son of your community,
I say to you,
I'm abandoning my party.
You can shove your bar mitzvah
up your asses.
You.
What's behind Mumy Singer's voice?
The kosher diva.
Mumy Singer, ladies and gentlemen!
Mumy, how are you prepping
for your comeback?
Well, I'm going back home.
In any case, Argentina is one
of the world's best places to be a Jew.
My true origin is the mystery.
I've always had a very good ear,
and that's why I do music.
I even change my accent
whenever I stay too long in one place.
My greatest motivation is the dream.
- And the dream is?
- To make it happen.
You've made Yiddish fashionable
all over the world.
Why Yiddish?
What would you say to those
who think it's a chant linked to the past?
I'd say that
that going back
is the only way to move forward.
I turned lamentation into a party.
A Clinical Approach to Virility.
It reviews the Freudian legacy
under a gender perspective.
- It's great. Very interesting.
- I guess.
And extremely difficult, right?
You've been studying it for years.
What do we do?
Should we pack it in a bag?
Or will you carry it with you as usual?
I never thought I'd go back.
We'll go together. You're not alone.
I wanted to travel light,
but everything's a burden.
Take it easy, Mumy. I've got you.
You can pack up to 23 kilos of angst.
Mumy.
Kids! Sandra!
Come on in!
Come in.
Welcome to our mansion.
We've been fixing it
since we moved in, little by little.
- Little by little?
- Welcome.
Welcome, everyone!
My hands are wet.
I'm finishing up some stuff.
- I'll be with you in a minute.
- Come.
The damp patch is on purpose, to remind us
that we're still fixing the house.
Come on in.
Where are the kids?
Don't tell me they aren't here!
Not today!
I've lost my kids just when fame
has knocked on our door!
- Here they are!
- Look!
- I can't believe how cute you are!
- Bravo!
You're all grown up! You're so big!
- Guess what I brought?
- What?
Presents. Sergio.
Presents.
Gifts.
Let's see.
This is for Jaia.
- Thanks, Sergio.
- Thanks!
- This is so pretty!
- This one here is for Len.
Look, the Builder!
- And what's for me?
- Eduardo!
- No! Oh, this!
- Show me.
- You don't need to bring anything!
- Wow!
- These are expensive.
- Unbelievable! Look.
Isn't this nice?
- Did you do these?
- Yes.
- You know what?
- What?
I'll put them in my dressing room.
It'll remind me of you at work.
Yeah.
Oh, you're so beautiful, really.
- Have you talked to Mumy yet?
- It's not the right time, Sandra.
Well, it's never the time
for this sort of thing, you know?
Remember, life goes by
in the blink of an eye.
Everyone asks her for favors.
You're her brother, and you can't ask her?
They only just arrived from Spain.
They're jet-lagged.
Hey, let's wait a little,
and then I'll talk to her.
For one second, I'm begging you
What?
To play God for a minute, huh?
So that we can get out of this situation
as amicably as possible.
Why don't you do it?
I already did everything.
There's no more left in me.
On the other hand, you never did a thing.
I'm sure you have
some tricks up your sleeve.
You look a lot like your brother.
It's outstanding.
It's as if you're one person split in two.
We have the same parents,
we went to the same school, but
I can hardly believe he's my brother.
Are you sure
you don't want to see your parents?
We still have plenty of time.
How sad.
- Visiting your family?
- No, what you said.
I thought you'd want to bang me.
"Bang"? You never use that word.
"Bang," "fuck," same thing.
Mumy, you did shows in Milan, in New York.
Why not sing
at the Buenos Aires San Martn Theater?
It was my first dream, you know?
Should I turn the light off or not?
So you can read.
No, leave it on.
Tomorrow I'll get up early
and go to the Lacanian Association
to do some networking.
Mumy Singer isn't the only one who has
things to take care of in this city.
Notes to self
I'm looking at my place from outside,
my life from outside.
Practicing for when I have to come
and pick up the kids
and wait for them outside
and ring the bell.
I'll have to get used to ringing the bell.
And let them know before coming.
Always let them know before coming.
RUBN
"BEHOLD A SON"
SAN MARTN THEATER
SMART & CASUAL WEAR
Dad?
How are you doing?
Trying to survive.
And you?
Same.
Too bad you had to come and see me.
It's the second time
I've ruined one of your shows.
It'll seem like
I want attention for myself.
Have you ever listened to me sing?
Always.
Even in silence.
As if that music
were coming from my own head
and was written by my own hands and heart.
I love how you sing "In the Oven."
You remember?
Of course.
- You sing just like Grandma.
- Like Grandma?
She was my biggest fan.
I owe her my self-centeredness too.
Mumy,
I'll never forgive myself.
I've forgiven you, Dad.
Even with your total forgiveness,
it's not enough for me.
Since that day, I've stopped living.
And I dedicated myself
to being a survivor parent.
No, Dad.
You were the best father you could be.
I'm sorry.
I rushed here,
so I didn't remove my makeup.
What?
The party favor we'd chosen.
Want to take it with you?
What for?
In case we lose each other again.
So I can find you.
But what should I do with this, Dad?
Hang it around my neck like a cow?
It doesn't even ring. It's plastic.
You're wrong.
The bell doesn't carry the sound.
The ear of the listener does.
Take it, Mumy.
Your mission is to make the bell ring.
My little girl.
Such nice hair.
Amen.
Take whatever you want. I'm done.
I don't even have the strength
to open the store.
What will I do if I don't open the store?
I'm so tired, exhausted.
I feel so exhausted.
And your brother too. He's so tired.
Some people know exactly what they want.
Well, your brother doesn't.
Mumy, aren't you gonna talk to me?
Forgive me, my girl.
Forgive us all, sweetheart.
Mumy, are you ready?
The Mumys are exhausted.
They need to eat something.
Let them get used to it.
Without their voices,
they'll starve even more.
Enough of that.
I'm done.
- I wanna go back.
- Why don't you take a nap?
It'll do you good.
You know what my dad used to tell me
whenever I was in pain?
That I was growing up.
That if I lay down a moment,
it would go away.
Had I done that,
I wouldn't have become Mumy Singer.
I'd love to get up and sing like Ariel,
the fucking Little Mermaid!
That's not how it works.
Stop!
I've lost my voice.
Do you know what that means?
There is no stronger presence
than the one of the dead.
You can argue with the living.
With the dead, you can only make peace.
It's not a coincidence
that this would happen now.
What did your dad say
during that argument?
"Mumy Singer my ass!"
I guess you're regressing back
to your child's voice.
It's Rubn's voice.
What do you mean?
A child has no voice of their own.
The father speaks through their voice.
Rubn's voice brings your dad back to life
so he won't die.
No.
That's impossible, Sergio.
Mumy, this is not a gender issue.
It's a choice
between adult Mumy and child Mumy.
Isn't that what a bar mitzvah
is all about?
You know what I need right now?
To have a pastrami sandwich
with my brother.
I need you to help me fix something.
Yes, tell me.
It's too personal, Eduardo.
No, it's too much responsibility.
What? I haven't said a word.
What about Sergio?
And Mom?
I need your help, Eduardo.
It's so personal,
I can only do it with you.
I want to have my bat mitzvah.
What?
You heard me.
You do that when you turn 13.
Girls have it at 12,
when they supposedly stop being girls,
then you can have it whenever you please.
Okay, so you did your research, Mumy.
What should I do? Just go and have it.
I can't do it alone.
I need to do this with you, brother.
Will it take long? Because
there's a lot going on in my head, Mumy.
Eduardo
I want to have a fucking bat.
Will you come with me?
Lacan once said,
"Seize your legacy."
What you're doing is beautiful, Mumy.
It's a big step.
I'm leaving, Sergio.
You're leaving me?
I'm not leaving you. You're staying.
I'm leaving.
Thanks for letting me know.
"Wherever you can't love, don't stay."
Well, I'm staying
with people who love me.
With the family, at the store, right here.
Unlike you, the perpetual runaway.
There's nothing more dangerous
than a reader.
You made me hate books, you know?
You made me feel like a singing idiot.
Here's everything you asked for.
The handbooks for the bar mitzvah,
the books of Torah.
Here's the written part.
Here's the spoken part.
How is it spoken if it's written?
Sometimes the commentary
is more interesting than the text.
Take a look
at Rashi's interpretation of Dinah,
the first trans Jew of our history.
Yes, Jacob's daughter that became
a trans girl in her mother's womb.
That's right.
Her mother prayed so fervently,
she transformed her male embryo.
Never underestimate a mother's love.
If you can't convince a rabbi with this,
I don't know.
In any case, there are few references
to women in the Torah.
- You can count them on one hand.
- on one hand.
- Yes.
- Good. Okay, then.
Ready?
Sweetheart, you have everything?
Everything.
Are they going very far?
A trip to the Once neighborhood
is an eight-street exile.
Is it true?
What?
What you can't get in Once,
you can't get anywhere,
even if it's a rabbi.
Let's go.
- Here.
- Yes.
We thought it'd be nice to leave it as is,
like a museum of your stuff.
Grandma's home,
Mumy's first place of exile.
Are you okay?
Didn't you think
of selling this or something?
Yes, we did.
But the inheritance wasn't properly done,
and then renting the place out
wasn't easy either. So
The truth is, Dad started using it
for his stuff, you know?
No! Look!
No! Look!
Look, Mumy!
What?
- The walkie-talkies!
- What?
- The walkies.
- What do you mean?
The walkie-talkies Grandma gave us.
I can't believe it.
You won't remember. You were young.
Grandma gave them to us,
but without batteries.
We went to buy them with Dad.
Turns out the batteries
were more expensive than the toy.
We had the toy but no batteries.
Dad would say
Don't you remember? Dad used to say,
"Soon there'll be imported batteries,
imported batteries, imported batteries."
Well, the batteries never came.
Grandma said
that we didn't need batteries,
that us siblings
would communicate somehow.
Do you know what I have?
The bar mitzvah course handbooks.
The originals.
Do you want to practice a little
for your bat?
No?
He'd say I was devoted to TV.
And it was true. I was so depressed,
all I'd ever do was watch TV.
I also registered
for rikudim classes at Hebraica.
It was worse.
I was looking for safe refuge,
and rejection was all I found.
They forced you out of rikudim classes?
And out of singing lessons. Go figure.
Another women's sport saved me.
Wing Chun.
One day, after rikudim class,
I saw a tatami
there on a basketball court.
And there was a man with beautiful hands.
Papadopulus.
He taught me to be aware
of the air going in and out of my body.
One day, we made a circle,
and it was my turn.
There was Rubn.
He gathered momentum
and kicked with all his might.
When he turned around,
the wooden board was intact.
So Papadopulus looked at me,
but he didn't see Rubn.
He looked Mumy in the eye.
You've become so famous.
He looked at me.
Well deserved.
You had a lot to do with it.
Although I really
haven't thanked you enough.
Why are you here, Mumy?
Tell me about Rubn.
When I thought I'd lost him, suddenly,
he knocked at my door again.
And I think I'm ready
to open that door this time.
May I?
You're on the right track.
It's a long journey.
But you aren't walking it alone.
The road goes forward,
but the journey is backwards
because it ends
where it starts.
I don't understand.
The answer
can be found in your other half.
And what does it say?
I can't read that.
WIG WORLD
We're open until 6:00 p.m.
Bye.
Lucho Levy.
I knew I'd find you here.
It wasn't that hard.
Some of us didn't go away.
Are you happy or what?
I don't want to talk about it.
It's indecent.
You can talk
about your happiness out loud.
No one can take it away from you.
Come here.
Let me introduce you.
Mumy, this is Lucho, my husband.
Lucho, this is Mumy and her brother.
Eduardo.
- Hello.
- Hi.
I don't get it.
You guys have the same name?
We do.
Someone chose
the same prophecy for us both.
Don't you get confused?
We're in love,
which means being a bit confused.
Okay, anyway
Grandma's walkie-talkies!
These devices led to a massive breakdown.
Grandma said we had communication issues,
so she gave us the walkie-talkies,
but without batteries.
These need lithium batteries. They don't
Nine volts.
They don't make these anymore.
- We don't carry them.
- No.
No, and there's no
You don't?
Not even for Mumy Singer?
There is no market price for them.
No, there's no price. It's
It's so
Okay, listen.
The price doesn't matter, Lucho.
I thought you may have something
in your warehouse.
Great. Would you hold this for me?
We'll be right back.
Behave.
This is human hair. It's excellent.
Look. They're all natural.
Absolutely everything.
This is a secret network
connecting warehouses in Once.
Everything's connected underground.
In case of an attack
Come here.
Are you nervous?
No. Are you?
That's a relief.
It felt like you were staring at me,
and I wouldn't know how to react.
I like men, but that doesn't mean
that I like all men.
I especially don't like
married hetero men.
Even if you're about to divorce.
How can you tell?
As soon as you walked in,
I said to myself, "This man is lost",
desperately looking
for what's in front of him."
You don't know how to tell your parents
or how you'll relate with your kids
after the divorce.
No, that's something
I don't know about. I couldn't.
The uneasiness is solid ground.
You get home, you get a nasty look.
Everything's okay, but
No, this is
It's like an abyss.
Call her now and tell her.
No, I can't do that.
I can't, no.
She asked me to come up with a proposal.
And I
I don't have one yet.
Some simply jump into the swimming pool.
And others
get in slowly.
I can't even find the swimming pool.
Guys.
What are we doing? Can anyone tell me?
- What?
- Rehearsing the choreography.
We've talked about this, guys.
We close our eyes
because we visualize Jerusalem.
If God manifests Himself,
we can't see Him.
The intention, guys.
The intention we do things with.
Otherwise, it's an empty gesture.
What's wrong?
Are we sad because Mumy left?
- Yes.
- Yeah.
And what are we gonna do?
Sink into sadness?
- Yes.
- No!
No.
We're rehearsing a dance for her bat.
And how are we doing it?
With joy or with sadness?
- With joy?
- Joy?
With joy.
If we do it with joy, we do it better,
and we make the act we're doing
even greater.
This has a purpose.
It's not just moving your legs.
Okay, from the top.
You're filling the house
with poetry, guys.
Now I know how it feels to be Mumy.
How are you doing, Garfunkel?
The Singman brothers!
You are
different.
Your skin is
brighter.
We're all a bit different, Garfunkel.
Thanks.
Okay, Garfunkel, we're here
with a rather urgent issue.
We have some unfinished business.
My sister wants to celebrate
her bat mitzvah.
Bat.
With a
With a T.
Boys born as boys
have certain precepts
that those born as girls don't have,
such as circumcision,
wearing the tefillin,
having a bar mitzvah.
It's a biological issue.
And girls do a bat mitzvah.
We're not talking about biology,
Garfunkel.
And I won't give you a sex education class
in the synagogue.
Right?
Rubn has no chance
of having a bat mitzvah,
no matter how you may feel.
The Torah can't take
your emotions into account.
Otherwise, it wouldn't be the Torah.
It's the law.
It must remain invariable
for things to change.
And what about a trans mitzvah?
A what?
A trans mitzvah?
And how did you come up with that name?
As a trademark, it's excellent.
Did you copyright it?
Garfunkel, are there any colleagues
who might be a little more understanding?
There's no chance of a trans mitzvah.
Listen to me.
No girl's more Jewish than me.
So it's your loss.
I'll take my body elsewhere.
- Rubn...
- Let's go, Eduardo.
We've all tolerated you here.
You're the one who left.
I don't need to be tolerated.
I'm neither gluten nor lactose.
Bye, Garfunkel.
You're such a bore.
Sandra, this is easy.
Look, Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday
- No, your proposal, Eduardo.
- No, Monday...
- What's your proposal?
- Wait.
Let me think about the proposal.
I haven't figured it out yet.
Okay, think about it.
You must come up with something.
Okay, fine.
Look, Sandra, it's not a proposal.
It's a far more complex
and comprehensive problem.
There are three important issues.
First, alimony.
We'll talk about it later.
As for the days, which are a lot,
we have to see how to
And the car, we only have one.
And then special things
like winter and summer holidays.
And the issue of birthdays.
Well, I think we can
spend birthdays together.
It'll be good for the kids
to have both parents,
even if it may be weird for us.
Hello, it's Mario, the janitor.
I don't want to intrude,
but someone came looking for you.
He was wearing a kippah.
Maybe a cousin, I guess.
Is your sister okay?
She's fine, yeah.
I'm glad.
By any chance,
do you have a small wooden board?
- A small wooden board?
- Yes.
A board to block a door,
stoke a fire, change someone's fate.
- Perfect.
- Does this work for you?
There's nothing more real
than pain, is there?
Mumy, this is Graciela Cohen.
She is your benei mitzvah planner.
My what?
"Benei mitzvah"
or "they mitzvah" is a celebration
that's ungendered or gender-fluid.
Fluid-ish gender.
"Benei mitzvah" means "us."
We avoid the pronouns "son," "daughter."
- We're avoiding...
- But I am the daughter of my father.
Aarn Singman.
We consider ourselves children of life.
No, you don't understand.
I am the daughter of my father.
And he's dead.
You can do as you like with Judaism,
your Judaism, whatever you want.
- Really?
- You can be the Jew you wanna be.
I didn't know I could be whoever I wanted.
- You can wear tefillin.
- I'm so stupid.
We embrace the gender you choose and like.
You can wear tefillin
all day long if you wish.
- Day in and day out.
- Of course, we
- This is the right place for you.
- Sure.
- So much freedom.
- Your happiness is very important.
To us, that's the tree of life.
Heavenly.
I believe that you're fake Jews.
What does being a Jew mean to you?
Wearing a label?
You're suggesting a shortcut,
and that's not my style.
I want to link up again, to reconnect.
Where did you find her?
- Listen
- From a rainbow?
Sometimes I wonder if Eduardo and Mumy
had been a single person,
how would they be? What kind of being?
If when we become parents
to several children,
we lose parts of ourselves.
Right?
This is our family register.
We're all here.
Aarn
There's Eduardo.
There's Rubn, Mumy.
And John the Baptist.
Aarn wanted to name him after the doctor,
if the doctor saved him.
Can you imagine?
A John the Baptist Singman.
I didn't know I could get pregnant.
That's why Mumy was born
so many years later.
I wonder if that son
I never carried to full-term,
who was never present
if John the Baptist didn't cause
Eduardo and Mumy to never fully adapt.
To be honest,
I blame myself a lot.
You're not responsible
for anything that happened.
I'd like to know
where all this comes from.
The origin.
What origin?
The origin is lost in what's been founded.
I don't get that.
- Picture this office.
- Yes.
We want to know its origin.
We've got the blueprints,
the drawings you made as you planned it,
the budget for its remodeling,
this staircase.
Reconstructing it in advance
is not possible.
If it were, would that make sense?
Therefore, there is no origin.
There is, but it's much better
because we reinvent it every time.
God never gives people burdens
they can't carry.
We must embrace
this principle from the Talmud
and treat each person
according to their gender.
In Mumy's case,
since she's a woman, we'd have a bat.
Was the call difficult?
- The chuppah
- The call was in your name.
symbolizes Abraham's first
Eduardo, I'm bored.
The focus is on inviting, gathering
I'm terribly bored.
I thought your life was an amusement park.
What can we play?
In addition, Mumy
What games did we play as kids?
She's the queen of Yiddish
Morse.
I just saw you!
Oh no. No.
Paso Street.
Follow the sound of the truck. Over.
Chiribim, Chiribom?
Everything's so beautiful here.
So? What's my prize?
It's there.
I go away
Where the song may take me
I return to my street
I go away where the song may take me
Where the song may take me
I return to my street
With the voice of my dreams
Mitzvah, mitzvah mitzvah
Mitzvah, mitzvah mitzvah
The prophet listens silently
My voice in my dream
I return to my street
To sing my sadness away
Listen to the silence
My voice in my dream
I go, I go so far away
Wherever the song will take me
To sing my sadness away
I dream, I dream, I dream
To sing my sadness away
That is my dream
I go back to my street
Welcome, son.
What are you doing here?
I have a message for you.
Eduardo and I thought
Eduardo and you?
You think as one?
Wait, Mumy. Listen to him.
All his life,
Aarn tried to fix that night.
He was obsessed with finding a solution.
In his despair,
he looked up the meaning of "Reuben"
in gematria, Hebrew numerology.
"Reu" means "to see."
"Ben" means "son."
Reuben is the son seen by God.
"To see a son."
"But my son feels like a daughter,"
thought Aarn.
This thought led to the only creative act
he had in his life.
He changed a letter
of the ancient Hebrew alphabet
and invented bat, reu bat.
"To see a daughter."
He estimated the energy
carried by both words,
a ballpark estimate,
and the difference
between reu ben and reu bat was 350.
He looked up 350 in numerology
and found the word shimut.
"Conversion."
Rubn gave him the clue
that led him to reveal the secret.
What secret?
That fate doesn't lie in one's name,
but in one's dream.
Behind Rubn,
Mumy's dream was already lying
as a return to the prophecy.
Dad always knew that you were right, Mumy.
That you should've had a bat.
He didn't know how to tell you this.
As a woman, you,
according to the mysteries of Kabbalah...
No.
I want to celebrate
my bar mitzvah for Rubn.
Not Mumy.
But for Rubn.
No, wait.
When you were Rubn,
you wanted to have it as Mumy.
Now that you're Mumy
You want to drive me crazy?
We consulted 50 rabbis.
I want to celebrate it for Rubn.
Mumy will be an instrument. That's it.
No way.
No bar mitzvah, Mumy.
You can't have a bar mitzvah.
Forget it. We're having a bat.
And according to renowned authorities
in trans issues...
What authorities?
Who authorizes who?
Who the fuck has the authority?
Great, you want to be
the spectators of my dream,
but this doesn't entitle you to interfere.
And least of all to have a say.
Spectators?
You think that we're waiting for you
to come on stage to applaud you?
You're so wrong, Mumy. So wrong.
You've been treating me like shit
for days.
Sergio, Mom, the dancers,
you do this to everyone.
Don't talk to me like that.
I am Mumy Singer, you know?
And I am Eduardo Singman. Singman!
My last name is worthless
because it's Dad's?
Because I didn't change it?
Look, we'd send you pictures of the shop,
and you only replied
saying that the window looked awful.
- That's a lie! No.
- No, it's true!
No.
You're very hurt,
but that doesn't mean you can harm.
I'm hurt?
What about you?
Have you looked at yourself?
What do you have?
Some sort of job?
Some sort of marriage?
You don't even try.
- You're crossing the line.
- I'm not.
I'm your older brother.
You're crossing the line.
Aarn's legacy was too heavy
to be carried over directly.
For that, he needed an intermediary.
Someone disposable, like me.
To convey such a valuable message.
Now you have it, Mumy,
and Eduardo has it too.
Do whatever you want with it.
Know what? This board is of no use to me.
It has a prophecy engraved on it.
- A prophecy?
- Yes, a prophecy.
Can you read it?
Do you know the allegory
that Walter Benjamin told Ernst Bloch?
Walter? No. Not that one.
A rabbi, a true Kabbalist,
he said that
to restore the kingdom of peace,
you don't need to destroy everything.
To start a new world, a little push,
a cup, a tree, a stone is enough.
But that nudge is so difficult
and so hard to measure
that humans can't do it.
So they're waiting for the Messiah.
The Messiah?
And do you know when He will come?
When?
When we no longer need Him.
We are the Messiah.
Abulafia said it,
"I am Him, and He is me."
It's on the inside.
No third party will come and save us.
It's a state of mind, get it?
The Abulafia?
- Abulafia.
- Abulafia, from Toledo?
- Abulafia.
- The boss.
Abulafia.
What do you have there?
Nothing, just pigeons.
I rescue them from the streets.
This one is blind.
How can you tell it's blind?
A virus ate away its two eyes.
If I take it to the streets, it won't fly.
The harriers would eat it.
Will it get any better?
No.
So how does it go on?
Well, blind.
Here.
Singman Fashion.
Welcome to Singman Fashion.
Touch it. It's real merino wool.
Miriam, with all due respect,
I have a proposal to make.
What is it? What is it now?
I'd like to take you out for coffee.
Why go out when we can have it here?
We haven't been out
since Aarn passed away.
You're right.
Is there a cozy caf or ptisserie
you like to go to?
And what will we tell the Mumys?
We'll leave them a note.
"We'll be right back.
We went out to spend money."
Perfect.
Come on, Mumy. Let's be friends again.
We were pretty stressed the other day.
I couldn't explain myself properly.
That's why I brought Dad's file.
I want you to see it with your own eyes.
Yes?
Here's a guy that Dad found
who integrated everything
within the margins. Get it?
What wasn't there, what didn't fit,
the rabbi here, he linked it together.
He linked it as in "religion." Understand?
This is the only guy
who can solve our conundrum.
You understand?
Look at this.
Dad did all this?
How old is this man?
He's ageless.
I don't know.
I don't get it.
Do you remember that night in Hebraica?
In the swimming pool?
Where did you go?
- This way.
- This way. And where did I go?
- Where did I go?
- That way.
Well, they seem like opposites, right?
Those arrows that seem like opposites,
if they go on and on, they meet again
at one point and form a circle,
a circle of unity.
That's the symbol of Abulafia.
Do you remember Abulafia?
- Abulafia?
- I told you about him.
The mystic from the 13th century.
Abulafia who?
Mumy, the direction we go doesn't matter.
We always get to the origin.
We're always in the same place.
This is crazy.
There are no opposites, Mumy.
There's no bar, no bat.
It's a circle.
There's transmutation.
We must go.
- We need to go, Mumy.
- Where?
- To the circle.
- What circle?
To the center of the circle.
But where is this center?
In Toledo.
That's the only place
where you can have your bat.
The place we were expelled from
500 years ago.
What? What's this?
Two tickets to Madrid, Barajas.
We leave tomorrow at 9:50.
Are you crazy?
That's my present to you, Mumy.
Wait. How did you get this, Eduardo?
I paid for them.
I bought them with the savings
I was keeping for my divorce.
Mumy, I want to go.
I want you to come with me.
I've never been on a plane.
I'm going.
If you want to come,
if you want to bring little Rubn,
if both of you want to come
Are you gonna use it?
What?
The travel kit they gave us.
No, take it.
- Are you sure?
- Yes.
Now you have one for each of the kids.
All right. What are we waiting for?
For the churros.
How was your flight?
Freddy!
Churros.
I love you!
I thought this dream was in economy class.
Yes, that was the original plan,
but traveling with Mumy
is an ongoing upgrade.
People come here in search of light,
and I say, "Beware of the light."
Me? I want glasses, the best sunglasses.
You shouldn't take any risks
and venture off by yourself,
even if you're Mumy Singer.
You need someone to make arrangements.
And that's me, Freddy.
- Did you find him, Freddy?
- The mystic?
- Yes, Abulafia's disciple.
- I'm on it.
You're our contact point
with the divine, Freddy.
Great, I thought I was just your agent.
Hermits can be found anywhere,
even in Finland.
- How will we find him?
- When you see him, you'll sing.
Otherwise, he could sing to you.
If we want a hermit to come out
of his cave, Mumy must sing.
- I love you, Freddy.
- And I love you.
You take the back seat.
You sold a show?
Oh, it's just for some friends.
Mumy, it won't hurt you!
I told you I wasn't singing, Freddy!
This stop is also part of your journey.
Mumy, it's the last push
for everything to change.
What is this?
Sorry.
Here.
- Hi, Freddy.
- Hello.
Mumy.
We're expecting 250 guests,
but no one is here yet.
And the bride?
What is she saying?
Lots of people won't be able to make it.
We weren't able to get married in Israel
like we wanted. Understand.
Mumy.
What?
"Mumy, sing, please."
"So that people may find us."
"So that we can finally get married."
All is part of the journey,
even if you can't see it, Mumy.
The first step to finding oneself
is getting lost in exile.
When someone is lost, that's a good thing.
And I'm in this circle for a reason.
And you should sing.
I can't sing, Freddy. I simply can't.
Eduardo.
Today we celebrate love
between this beautiful couple.
You are such a beautiful couple.
Congratulations.
I hope you have beautiful love,
life-long love.
I myself had love for many years.
And I know it will last forever.
Today I'd like to dedicate this song
to that love.
When you were born
I was barely six
It was such a joy
I'd soon have a brother
And you were born at ten past nine
One morning by the end of May
And my excitement was such
That I held you in my arms
I had completely forgotten
That I wanted a brother
As I grew up
I always wanted to be close to you
I felt you were big
Although you were only ten
And by following you, I started to walk
The path that you signaled me
And today, from my childhood to my youth
I have memories that won't fade away
That I carry with me
My beloved brother
Siblings in good and bad times
Always together, always close
Without asking anything in return
Siblings in sweet times and bitter ones
We learned to listen to each other
And to understand each other instantly
We are together
And that hasn't changed
Down the same path
Fighting for what we love
I thank God I still count on you
Every step of the way
Because next to you I learned to live...
Abulafia will appear
somewhere in those mountains.
Are you sure this is the place?
- We came to Toledo for nothing, Eduardo.
- No.
He will only exit his cave
if he hears one voice,
a sound that he finds worthwhile.
What sound?
Chiribin!
Chiribon!
I've been waiting for you
for eight centuries.
We need to talk.
Are you Abulafia or one of his disciples?
What's the difference?
We talked to a lot of rabbis,
and none of them were the right one.
There's nothing impeding your ceremony.
You will be here
next Thursday at 7:30 a.m.
You'll gather a group of 10,000 women
dressed in white.
Is this a women's minyan?
The use of tefillin,
is it something she could do,
or is it only reserved for men?
Those are details.
Tiny details.
We don't reduce God to details.
The Creator, Elokim
My God!
I saw you coming,
and I saw a flame circle around you.
I contemplated
your fraternal love in ecstasy.
In the name of Hashem, Adonai, Elokim.
The Creator.
Come on in, my darling.
Sandra, I wanted to tell you
everything's so beautiful here.
The landscape, can you hear it?
I'm not sure whether you can hear it.
Everything's so beautiful,
you wouldn't recognize me.
Sandra, I have a proposal for you.
It's quite simple.
Let's stop ruining each other's lives.
Come on!
Come.
The mystic couldn't make it.
What do you mean he couldn't?
But he sent this group of women.
You have something of mine.
Yes.
Your voice.
That's impossible.
Mine is a child's voice,
and you're all grown up.
I like your body.
It's gorgeous.
- Would you give me back my walkie-talkies?
- Of course.
And the other one?
This is for you.
Touch it. It's real merino wool.
Listen.
Everything will be fine.
Don't worry about a thing.
Even the best and the worst singer
sing just the same.
- How?
- As best they can.
Hello. Where are you?
Over and out.
All right, we're on our way.
Order delivered.
What's your Jewish name?
I don't have one.
Will you give me one?
Yes, maybe one starting with an "M."
It could be Malca, "queen,"
or Metuk, "sweet."
You do have one, right?
Yes, of course.
I'm Ariel. Ariel Ben Aarn.
Ariel.
Ariel is beautiful.
Can I borrow it?
You're the only person in the world
I'd lend my name to.
Thank you.
SMART & CASUAL WEAR
My voice
Your voice
Ours
The dream is that it happens