A Stranger Among Us

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A Stranger Among Us is a movie by Sidney Lumet, starring Melanie Griffith and released in 1992. It tells of an undercover policewoman's experiences among the Hasidic Jewish community.

It is often cited as one of Lumet's two failures of the 1990s, the other being Guilty as Sin (1993). Despite the poor reviews suffered by both these films, Lumet received the 1993 D. W. Griffith Award of the Directors Guild of America. Some of the criticism of A Stranger Among Us is based on comparisons with the Oscar-winning film Witness, which has a superficially similar plot. Similarly, Lumet's earlier film Failsafe was unfavourably compared to Dr Strangelove, but in that case both films have subsequently achieved cult status. Griffith's performance in the lead role has also been heavily criticised.

In the film, Emily Eden (Griffith), is a hardened homicide detective. She goes undercover to investigate the murder of a diamond-cutter. To do so, she lives with the family of the Hasidic rebbe, an elderly Holocaust survivor who is revered for his wisdom and compassion. He says to her,

"You and I have something in common: We are both intimately familiar with evil. It steals your soul."