“We love Jewish mothers,” protested filmmaker Joey Craine on the phone from Detroit. “We’re only allowed to make fun of Jewish mothers because we have them.”
Writer-director Craine, along with his boyhood buddy and co-producer Steve Jasgur, created the Jewish mother-from-hell in their feature film “3 Little Wolfs,” an 85-minute romp through one family’s seder gone awry.
The film will have its Bay Area premiere Monday, March 4 in the seventh annual Contra Costa International Jewish Film Festival at the Contra Costa Jewish Community Center.
Mrs. Wolf is a composite of every Jewish mother joke you’ve ever heard — overprotective, hypercritical, opinionated — and she even comes complete with a dining room no one is allowed to set foot into. Played in an over-the-top characterization by award-winning stage and television actress Tovah Feldshuh (“Law and Order”), she is obnoxious to the point of being lovable.
“I’ll admit to some exaggeration,” confessed Craine, “but Tovah really took the character and ran with it.”
It could have been worse. Jasgur related that the original title was “The 3 Little Wolfs and the Big Bad Pig.”
“I told Joey we weren’t going to get anyone into the theater calling a Jewish mother a pig,” he said.
In addition to his producer chores, Jasgur plays one of the three Wolf brothers, the highly neurotic Paul. Being the eldest, Paul is perfect, of course, and the apple of his mama’s eye. With only one flaw. He married Shannon “the shiksa.”
Wonderfully realized by New York actress Geneva Carr, Shannon, who grins and bears her mother-in-law’s thinly veiled insults with a devilish sense of humor of her own, is one of the most realistic portraits in the film.
Others, though briefly seen, are Eunice, the maid, who grumbles her way through her chores and surreptitiously swigs Manischewitz from the bottle in the kitchen, and an elderly, doddering guest who holds the key to the surprise ending. Because, at the conclusion of this particular seder, there are more unanswered questions than the traditional four.
“You don’t have to be Jewish to appreciate this film,” said Craine. “You just have to have a family. It could be set at Thanksgiving or Christmas. This is just what I am most familiar with.”
“Everybody has a mother, and you will always be your mother’s child, no matter how old you are,” added Jasgur.
In illustration of that point, the film begins with a series of phone conversations each of the boys has with mom. They are filmed in black and white and will hilariously resonate with any mother’s child.
And have their own mothers seen the film?
“Of course!” chorused the 32-year-old producers.
“My mother wants to make it perfectly clear that this has nothing to do with our personal experience,” insisted Craine.
“I actually played on all the stereotypes as a conscious decision because it has a bearing on the conclusion of the plot.”
The movie, which was made in 1999, has been shown at a number of festivals and private screenings. The producers hope for a wider distribution, but they are aware that it is a “niche film.”
They both have day jobs. Jasgur is a New York actor, and Craine has worked in television and film production in Los Angeles.
Recently they both moved back to their native Detroit in order to pursue more film collaboration.
“We realized that we didn’t need to be in L.A. or New York to make films,” said Craine, who is currently working on a stage adaptation of “3 Little Wolfs.”
“It’s a global world out there.”
And, of course, their mothers are delighted that they are back in town.
The festival is presented by the CCJCC and the Israel Center of the Jewish Federation of the Greater East Bay, with major funding from the Jewish Community Foundation of the federation and the Consulate General of Israel, as well as individuals and corporations. It is co-sponsored by area synagogues and Jewish organizations.