Goyband

Goyband is a feature film starring Adam Pascal, Amy Davidson, Cris Judd, Tovah Feldshuh, Dean Edwards,Tibor Feldman and Natasha Lyonne and others.

The Story:

Well, it's a gefilte fish out of water tale that’s fun for the whole mishpucheh*!

Fading from the spotlight of his late 90's mega-fame, boy-band icon BOBBY STARR is clinging to days gone by and begging his agent MURRY to land him a decent gig. ("C'mon, Murry I packed Madison Square Garden, for Chrissake!") What Murry does land for Bobby is a full week headlining the grand opening of the world's first Glatt Kosher hotel-casino, MAZEL HOTEL. (“Bobby, baby, you could be to the Catskills what Engelbert Humperdinck was to Las Vegas.”)

As it turns out, the real force behind Bobby Starr's curious invitation to this “Orthodox otherworld” is the hotel owner's persuasive daughter REBEKKA HERSHENFELD, who has harbored a huge crush on Bobby since childhood. Rebekka's world is guided by her arranged betrothal to HAIM, the son of GRAND RABBI SHEINMAN, the powerful Kabbalah Rabbi who is supposed to issue the casino's all-important "Kosher certificate." Besides being good for business, the union of Rebekka and Haim will help heal a long-standing rift between Sheinman’s Kabbalahists and the Orthodox sect led by Rebekka’s family.

Rebekka's only release from the pressures of preparing to be a future Rebitsin (Rabbi's wife) comes from singing along to Bobby's songs with her best friends HANI and FANI (in secret, since their religion bars them from singing in public.)

From the moment Bobby arrives at the Mazel hotel, non-stop culture-clash hilarity ensues: his TV goes dark at sundown, his beloved cell phone is confiscated during the Sabbath, his Grey Goose Vodka is replaced with Manischewitz… And all of this is set against the backdrop of an alien world where "Kosher enforcers" drag gamblers from their slot machines at prayer time; late-night “treyf smugglers” sneak non-Kosher contraband like cheeseburgers and fried shrimp into the hotel; and where slot machines display Shofars, Menorahs and David Stars instead of lemons, cherries and dollar signs, and chime 'Hava Nagila' for lucky winners.

Arranging for Bobby Star to play at her father's hotel might have started out as an act of rebellion for Rebekka, but as our story unfolds we see it is more a cry for help. And when infatuation blossoms into romance, Bobby offers Rebekka a once-in-a-lifetime ticket to freedom from the constrictive life that threatens to hold her back forever.

(*mishpucheh = family)

External Links:

Goyband IMDB: [1]

Goyband Homesite: [2]

Goyband myspace: [3]