Documentary on Mount Airy's 'little rebbe' to open here

His voice is deeper, he stands taller, he shaves regularly, and he's a high school student now.

But Lior Liebling, 16, still loves to pray - and to sing loudly, off-key, with singular intensity. Liebling, who has Down syndrome, still lives up to the nickname of "the little rebbe," or rabbi.

Nearly four years after the Mount Airy teenager's bar mitzvah, a documentary focusing on that event, Liebling's family, and his joyful spirituality is drawing stellar reviews and has earned multiple awards at film festivals.

The movie, Praying With Lior, will make its local commercial debut Friday at Clearview's Bala Theatre in Bala Cynwyd, followed by a screening next month in the Cherry Hill Volvo Jewish Film Festival.

Liebling is the third of four children of Mordechai Liebling, a prominent rabbi and the former director of the Jewish Reconstructionist Federation, and Devora Bartnoff, also a rabbi. Six years old when his mother died of breast cancer in 1997, Lior Liebling lives with his father, his adored stepmother, Lynne Iser, and his 15-year-old sister, Anna.

The film is an honest look at life in the Liebling-Iser household, complete with sibling sniping, parental pressure, and the sometimes-complicated dynamics of a blended family.

But it also gives a glimpse of a remarkable, high-functioning disabled boy, who at age 3 preferred singing Hebrew songs to "The Eensy Weensy Spider," who wished plaintively for his mother and the Messiah to come back for his bar mitzvah, and who is regarded as a leader in Congregation Mishkan Shalom, the Manayunk synagogue where he is a member.

"I don't know if there's a God, but if there is, Lior is closer to him than anyone I know," Liebling's brother, Yoni, says in the film.

At home on a recent afternoon, Liebling took a break from his homework and pointed to a stack of Praying for Lior promotional postcards on the kitchen counter. On the wall was tacked a page from the New York Times with ads for Lior, Juno and a Hannah Montana concert movie. The documentary has already had a commercial run in New York.

"I love being a star," Liebling said. "I love seeing me on screen."

New York producer and filmmaker Ilana Trachtman met the Lieblings, who hoped someone would tell Lior's story, at a Rosh Hashanah retreat in 2003 and was struck by their son's earnest prayer, how he connected with people. Trachtman spent months with her crew recording the family's everyday lives.

Finding funding was a slow process, achieved over years through foundations and private individuals - including Trachtman, who maxed out her personal credit cards.

Eventually, she found a distributor that believed in the movie, First Run Features. Lior premiered last summer at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival and is set to play commercially in 10 cities.

Trachtman said she always knew it would be a good film, but its success has been a revelation.

There's been critical acclaim, including laurels from Variety and the New York Times. There was the extended engagement in New York. And there was a Christmas Day op-ed piece by the chairman of the Special Olympics, who was so moved by the film that he compared Liebling to Jesus.

"The response is overwhelming," said Trachtman, who will appear with the Liebling family at the Bala Clearview.

Lior Liebling, however, is not surprised.

"The movie is heartwarming and funny, and people enjoy it," he said.

Liebling now attends mostly academic classes at Franklin Towne Charter School in the Northeast. He loves to play drums, sleep late, and chat about his world history class. He's still warm, hilarious and stubborn.

For Iser, watching her family on film has been terrific, but also surreal. Strangers who connected strongly to the film approach her and tell her about their stepmothers. And Trachtman gets several e-mails a day from people who want to send messages to or go on dates with Liebling's siblings.

"It's a movie that people can relate to," Iser said. "It's funny, and that has nothing to do with Down syndrome or praying. It's just family life."

There are larger messages, too, she said: the importance of community, the benefits of diversity, the unique joy a child like hers brings to a family.

Liebling isn't any more difficult than anyone else in her household, Iser said. In fact, he has enriched the unit.

"We've developed more meaning and closeness because of Lior," Iser said. "He's the center of 'Let's love each other and be happy.' "

Praying With Lior opens Friday at Clearview's Bala Theatre, 157 Bala Ave., Bala Cynwyd. Information: 610-668-4695 or www.clearviewcinemas.com. Director Ilana Trachtman and members of the Liebling family will take questions after the 7 p.m. and 9:20 p.m. shows on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

It will screen in the Cherry Hill Volvo Jewish Film Festival on April 6 at 1 p.m. at the Showcase at the Ritz Center, 900 Haddonfield-Berlin Rd., Voorhees. Information: 856-424-4444, Ext. 292, or http://go.philly.com/filmfest. Trachtman and the Lieblings will attend.

EndText