The intersection of grief and faith is a bit complicated, whether in reality or as fiction. No two people grieve the same way, and no two cultures have the same structure for what happens when a loved one dies. First time feature film writer-director Shawn Snyder dives right into the nitty gritty of science, loss and faith, and delivers a charming, quirky, human and, at times, macabre, film in “To Dust.”
Shmuel (Géza Röhrig, “Son of Saul”) has just lost his wife to cancer. A Hasidic cantor, he does everything his faith asks him to do following her death, but still he is obsessed with what might be happening to his wife’s corpse.