Pop-Culturalist.com

There’s nothing more powerful than a filmmaker reclaiming their own story, but true brilliance comes from knowing how to shape that experience into something bigger than themselves. Daisy Friedman doesn’t just reflect on her past with Unholy—she crafts a deeply resonant and masterfully told exploration of identity, tradition, and the unspoken complexities within family.

Inspired by her own struggles with chronic illness, the film follows Noa, played with striking vulnerability by Olivia Nikkanen, as she attends her first Passover Seder since being placed on a feeding tube. Confronted by overbearing relatives, malfunctioning medical devices, and a table of food she can’t eat, Noa’s quiet fight for agency collides with her family’s well-intentioned but overwhelming attempts to make her feel included. Among them is her cousin Shoshanna, played by Arielle Friedman, whose oblivious remarks bring both humor and discomfort to an already fraught evening. The result is a raw, deeply felt story of belonging, expectation, and the delicate balance between personal identity and family tradition.

Pop Culturalist was lucky enough to chat with Daisy and Arielle Friedman about bringing Unholy to life, the importance of authentic representation, and how they balanced humor, tension, and deeply personal storytelling to create a film that is as honest as it is compelling.

PC: Daisy, there were so many different directions you could have taken this film, from its genre to its length. Can you talk a bit about the creative decision-making and the inspiration behind Unholy?
Daisy: I had a triple organ transplant and was on a feeding tube as a kid. I don’t remember that time in my life very well. In many ways, I’ve been trying to reclaim that experience. In my work, I want to offer a positive representation—or at least a nuanced understanding—of chronic illness, more so than Judaism, though Judaism is also what I know. So I started with the question: “How would my family react if I experienced this at my current age? How would I react, knowing who they are and who I am as an adult?” That’s where we began.

I wanted the story to extend beyond just my lived experiences because there was no way I could tell that story alone. There was a moment on set when I realized that if the film had been too close to my own life, it would have been too overwhelming. I wanted to take audiences on an emotional rollercoaster—just when they think Noa has settled in, another roadblock appears. My goal was to weave all this information, tension, and these family dynamics into one setting within a short time span, showing not only their relationships with each other but also their relationships with Noa. Families are complicated, and everyone has their own dynamics.

We spent a lot of time in pre-production, almost like actors preparing for roles, mapping out different relationships that wouldn’t even be explicitly shown on screen. For example, what were the father and aunt like as children? How do they relate to each other now? By doing that, I could come in and talk to the actors and say, “There’s animosity between the two sides of your family. One side is perhaps of a higher socioeconomic status and more religious. How does that shape your experience walking into this space—especially with a sick child in the mix?” We put in a lot of work to make these dynamics feel deeply nuanced and present.

PC: These characters feel so three-dimensional. Arielle, your performance is so nuanced and balanced. She’s someone we all know—we all have a family member like her. But when you peel back the layers, I think she’s exactly what Noa needs right now. You have experience as a writer, and you’re also a producer on this. How does the work you’ve done behind the scenes empower you to read between the lines of a character like this?
Arielle: Thank you. I do prefer to be a producer on the projects I act in because I think that prep time—the development and everything you just mentioned—allows you as an actor to be so much freer on set. At least, that’s how I feel.

It’s like Daisy said. We spent so much time in development finding the nuances in these characters. We didn’t want any of them to be villains. We wanted them to have depth and feel real because, so often in families—especially those with a member who has a chronic illness—people can be tone-deaf without realizing it. They don’t always recognize that what they’re saying is offensive, hurtful, or rude. We wanted to capture that reality, but we also didn’t want to villainize those people. Instead, we wanted to show their limitations and the perspectives they bring to the table that evening.

One of the great things about working with Daisy and being involved in pre-production and development was that, by the time we got to set, we got to play. We got to have fun. We even did some improv at the table. We were able to really live in that scene in a way that felt so comfortable, which gave us the freedom to explore. That was really nice.

PC: Huge credit to you too, Daisy. I love those scenes with big ensembles where it feels like controlled chaos.
Arielle: Daisy actually made a dialog map.

Daisy: I actually sat down with another one of our producers and literally made a map. We had the script, but we also wanted to chart out who would speak, how the camera would follow them, and who would speak next. It ended up being this dance—figuring out how not to cross the line while keeping both sides of the family fluidly engaged in conversation, making sure the audience felt like they had a seat at the table. You’re anxious with them. No one is really yelling until the end.

I didn’t want it to feel like a shtick or caricature because, so often, Jewish stories—especially ones about family—are portrayed in a stereotypical, one-dimensional way. In some ways, the film subtly comments on this through dialogue about Hillel and the name Josh. There are hints of it in there, but because the characters feel real—calm for the most part, riffing off each other, teasing without explicitly saying things—it reflects the way my family actually interacts. That nuance and complexity prevent it from becoming a caricature.

PC: It also makes the short universal—not just for the Jewish community, but for general audiences as well. Daisy, I know that representation was so important to you throughout this filmmaking process, and you wanted a lead actress with these lived experiences. But like in indie filmmaking, you often have to pivot. I’d love to hear about that collaboration with Olivia and the conversations you both had because her performance feels so lived-in.
Daisy: It does. That was a big struggle, but also an incredible part of the process because I really did want to cast someone with a feeding tube. Originally, it was going to be a friend of mine with no acting experience. Once everything came together with the film, I thought this could be something really special—and it would have been with her—but she was struggling a lot with the idea of stepping into such a new role for herself.

Arielle: Acting is so personal.

Daisy: Yeah, it’s like what we were discussing earlier about why I didn’t want this to be my own story. I think it would have been difficult for her to play this because she was living it. She also got pretty sick during that time, so we had to go in a different direction.

Olivia is actually one of Arielle’s good friends from childhood, which is so serendipitous. We auditioned her. Sophie [Bury], my friend who was originally going to play this role, was sitting with me during the casting of all the characters—Noa, Benjamin, everyone. The story I love to tell is that after Olivia’s audition, Sophie turned to me and said, “I believe she’s sick more than I believe that I am,” because she’s such a good actor. I was like, “Great, so it’s going to be her.”

We had a lot of conversations during pre-production between Olivia, Sophie, and me. Sophie shared her own story, and Olivia was able to ask both of us questions. In terms of the practicalities—the props and everything—they were all Sophie’s.

Arielle: She donated them all to us!

Daisy: I was very intentional about how I introduced everything to Olivia. For example, there’s a scene where Olivia’s character has to quickly fix her device. I showed her the process once and a half times and then said, “Great, you understand a little bit of it.” She was like, “Yeah!” And I told her, “I’m going to make you struggle with the rest so it looks authentic.” I think that was such a good decision.

It was really hard at first to come to peace with casting someone who didn’t have this experience because I was afraid the community would be upset with me. I was even a little upset with myself. But once we got into the process, Olivia was so tuned in—so receptive to my notes, to what Sophie had to say, and to the actors around her—that it all flowed so naturally that I started to believe it.
The other story I love to tell is about a specific shot of the tube in the film. Sophie was supposed to be the body double, but she ended up being hospitalized the weekend we were shooting. So I had this dilemma—do I cut the shot, even though it’s one of the most important ones, or do we try putting it on Olivia? Neither option felt right. [laughs] So I ended up doing it. I body-doubled. I had the tube placed where I used to have it as a child. Olive Ryan, our makeup artist, did an amazing job making it look irritated. I already had little divots on my body, so it looked incredibly real. I was really glad to contribute to that authenticity.

There are a lot of directors who say, “You have to put your blood, sweat, and tears into your films,” and that’s true. But to literally put my body on the line for this—to have a real stake in it—meant so much. I wanted to show the broader community, especially the disabled and chronic illness communities, that I was doing everything I could to make this as authentic as possible for us.

PC: It’s also such a personal story, so it’s nice to have that additional connection to it. Arielle, you’re friends with Daisy, who wrote and directed this, and it’s an entirely Jewish cast. There’s a lot to be said about collaborating in an environment where both the team in front of and behind the camera share similar experiences. Firstly, how does that empower you to take more creative risks? There are also so many great comedic beats—how much did you lean on Daisy to see how far you could push those moments?
Arielle: Well… [laughs] To answer your second question first, we got to do a lot of improv at the table, which is such a credit to Daisy for trusting us and letting things flow. We ran the scene a couple of times to shoot different sides of the table’s coverage. After one take, I was like, “I have this crazy idea. I’m going to pitch it to her.” She said, “Go for it!”

So there’s a line where Shoshanna says, “If you want plastic surgery, let me know!” Trusting Daisy and knowing we were not only on the same page, but also that I understood what she was looking for in terms of the characters, the beats, the anxiety, and the cringe factor she wanted this character to evoke in the audience, I thought, “That’s the craziest thing I could think of her saying. Let’s give it a shot and see how it goes.” I didn’t tell the other actors, so their reactions were completely genuine when I said it.

It was such a special moment to have a director trust me like that and let me take a risk because it’s a shocking and horrible thing to say to someone. But the trust and shared understanding of who these characters were, the space they were coming from, and the dynamics at this table made everything feel more natural, conversational, and even more like a real family. We shot that scene for about eight hours, so at certain points, we were just chit-chatting in between takes.

A lot of our crew was also Jewish, and so many people contributing both behind and in front of the camera were either part of the disability community, adjacent to it, or had a very personal relationship to disability—whether as a caretaker or a partner. That intersection of Judaism and disability allowed us to tell this story as honestly as possible. We all understood what we were trying to do, and that’s very much because of Daisy and how she approached the process.

PC: Daisy, there’s a scene where Noa is drinking her grandmother’s broth, and the way you shot it makes audiences feel, as you were saying, like they not only have a seat at the table, but also feel Noa’s anxiety. How did you approach that moment in particular and create that contrast?
Daisy: It’s exactly that. We wanted you to feel both of those emotions. First, there’s that perspective where you feel like you’re part of the table—you’re encouraging her, hoping it goes well for her. There’s a brief moment of almost levity where you think, “Wow, these people actually love her. They’re not bad people.” You see the tradition, and you sit there hoping she’ll be able to participate.

But then, as soon as you realize it’s not going to go well, we shift back to Noa’s perspective, and suddenly, you’re supporting her. There’s something to be said about wanting to support both the family and Noa. This isn’t just a story about the family, but I do have a lot of sympathy for them. A lot of the wild dialogue in the film is based on real things my own family has said to me—things that sound ridiculous but come from a place of deep love, care, and a desire for inclusion. They want her to feel like part of the family, but it’s all driven by fear. Noa fears she won’t belong, and in many ways, the family fears that too.

By assuming the family’s perspective at certain moments, we allow audiences to see that fear and care—maybe for the first time. And when everything falls apart, we dive back into Noa’s perspective and what that means in the context of tradition.

Arielle: Something Daisy has spoken about a lot—especially on this project—is how you access tradition when you can’t participate in the same ways as everyone else. How does that barrier not only affect you, but also the people around you? How do you engage with tradition when it’s inaccessible to you? That was a huge part of our process and why we wanted to tell this story.

Specifically, Passover Seder is so centered around food. You have this character stepping into a space of tradition, yet she’s unable to participate on the most fundamental level of what that tradition is. That tension was at the heart of what we wanted to explore.

Make sure to follow Daisy (Instagram) and Arielle (Instagram).

Unholy Screenings at SXSW:

• Narrative Short Program 3 at Rollins Theatre at The Long Center – Mar 8, 2025 (6:00pm — 7:45pm)
• Narrative Short Program 3 at Rollins Theatre at The Long Center – Mar 11, 2025 (11:00am — 12:45pm)