Trouble in Amish Paradise - documentary

Thank you to the capper at thebox.


Andrew Tait's film follows Ephraim Stoltzfus, an otherwise average Amish man who had been excommunicated and shunned for daring to suggest that some of the rules imposed by the community elders might be a tad unnecessary. His ultra-conservative Older Order Amish church subscribes to the same version of the Bible used by their Swiss/German forefathers, written in an antiquated form of Deutsch that most of them don't understand. After Ephraim and his equally inquisitive brother, Jesse, committed the cardinal sin of reading the Bible in English, they came to the realisation that many of their lifestyle codes hadn't been dictated by the good book at all.

Although his belief in God was unshakeable, Ephraim nevertheless displays a healthy sense of irreverence towards some of the wackier aspects of his faith. He has no idea, for instance, why Amish males have to wear that distinctive, Abraham Lincoln-esque chinstrap, nor why their horse-drawn buggies have to be painted a certain shade of grey. You would think, after all, that God had better things to do with his time than dictate the finer points of facial topiary and vehicle maintenance.

Tait's film manages to illustrate the frustrating inconsistencies and nonsensical barriers of life within a fiercely fundamentalist religious sect. And yet it also shows its loyally altruistic flipside, revealing that Ephraim had donated his entire life's savings to an Amish family in need, and despite his excommunication, the rest of the community rallied round with support when he and his family were in need themselves.