StC News

Science on Screen event to feature longtime StC faculty & staff member Hiram Cuevas

Hiram Cuevas & Rabbi Yossel Kranz of Chabad of Virginia to discuss what happens after death from both a biological and religious stand point.
Sunday, April 7:15 p.m. at the Byrd Theatre | Tickets on sale Sunday, April 3

Science on Screen pairs film with lively introductions around science themes.


Director of Academic Technology at St. Christopher’s School, Hiram Cuevas & Rabbi Yossel Kranz of Chabad of Virginia will discuss what happens after death from both a biological stand point and through the context of the death and mourning process in the Jewish Faith.

Film Synopsis
A mourning Hasidic widower enlists a reluctant biology professor in his obsessive quest to understand what exactly will happen to his young wife’s body as it returns to dust.

Shmuel, a Hasidic cantor in Upstate New York, is distraught by the untimely death of his wife, Rivkah. As he struggles to find solace in his religion, which proffers a stringent timeline for grief, Shmuel grows increasingly haunted by visions of Rivkah’s decomposing corpse. Convinced that her soul will suffer until her body returns to dust, Shmuel decides that to stop his feverish spiral he must seek an understanding of the physical processes of her decay, despite the blasphemy inherent in any scientific inquiry. Risking discovery and expulsion, Shmuel tip-toes outside his enclave, where his search leads to Albert, a bumbling biology professor at the local community college. Soon, Albert is unwittingly seduced into an odd world of homespun forensic research and begins to guide Shmuel through outrageous experiments that aim to approximate a timeline for Rivkah’s dissolution—starting with the theft, suffocation, and burial of a pig. As amateur scientists and incompetent criminals on progressively absurd outings, the two find themselves neck-deep in genres in which neither of them belongs. With their macabre moonlit misadventures growing ever more perilous, the odd couple will stop at nothing to satiate their curiosity and find Shmuel the comfort he desperately seeks.

Director: Sean Snydor

Writers: Jason Begue, Shawn Snyder

Stars: Géza Röhrig, Matthew Broderick, Sammy Voit

Science on Screen® at the Byrd Theatre is made possible through a grant from the Coolidge Corner Theatre, with support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation

Special Thank you to our Supporting Sponsor Science Matters.
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