Ultra-Orthodox female filmmaker’s unique take on boy meets girl

Filmmaker Rama Burshtein-Shai smiles gently and sweetly throughout our interview, as her tone changes from definitive and decisive to serene, almost mystical. Her hair carefully covered in a colourful scarf, she shares a laugh over Zoom, which is taking place in the middle of her Passover cleaning – a particularly stressful time for any ultra-Orthodox woman, which she is.

Yet she is candid and generous with her time and thoughts, even when she is answering questions about her life as an ultra-Orthodox filmmaker that she has probably already answered before in dozens of interviews.

Burshtein-Shai is speaking about her new project Fire Dance, an eight-part TV series streaming on ChaiFlicks, about a troubled Haredi teenager who falls in love with the married son of the leader of the community.