20 Things You Didn't Know About A Serious Man
2. What Was All That About?
The film begins on a decidedly unexpected note as it takes viewers into a 19th-century Jewish settlement (or Shtetl) and follows a Yiddish man who invites an elderly man to his house for dinner, to his wife's dismay. A somewhat awkward meal turns unsettling when it is heavily implied that the unexpected visitor is a Dybbuk, a restless spirit that wanders the Earth due to its sinful past.
The opening is seemingly unconnected to the remainder of the film due to its setting and overall tone. The Coen brothers acknowledge its lack of thematic connection to the rest of the film and state that it was meant to get audiences settled into the unconventional nature of the film.
The world of 19th-century Eastern Europe and mid 60s Minnesota may be worlds apart, but the opening scene adds some cultural weight to the film's strong Jewish sensibilities.