Holy Rollers

Holy Rollers is a 2010 independent film written by Antonio Macia, directed by Kevin Asch, and starring Jesse Eisenberg, Justin Bartha, Ari Graynor, Danny Abeckaser, Q-Tip and Jason Fuchs. Holy Rollers is inspired by actual events in the late nineties when Hasidic Jews were recruited as mules to smuggle ecstasy from Europe into the United States.

The first word of the film’s title is a reference to the protagonist’s religious character and the second refers to the slang term “rolling” describing a person high on ecstasy. Incongruously, “Holy Rollers” is also a phrase most commonly applied to Pentecostal Christians, often derisively in reference to their ecstatic behavior, but is not commonly used of Jews or other non-Christians.

Holy Rollers was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival and director Kevin Asch won the Breakthrough Director Award at the 2010 Gotham Awards.

End credit song Darkness Before the Dawn written by MJ Mynarski & Paul Comaskey appeared on the Best Original Song shortlist for the 83rd Academy Awards.

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