Fill the Void – Film Review

Israel’s submission for the Best Foreign Language Film for the 85th Academy Awards 2013 is a beautifully handled story about a devout 18-year-old Israeli girl who is subtly but firmly pressured by her mother to marry the husband of her older sister who’s just died.

In Tel Aviv’s ultra-Orthodox Hasidic community, no one seems to be able to be truly independent or really act on their own feelings. In the Mendelman family, the father is the kindly Rabbi Aharon, married to the determined Rifka. Their 28-year-old daughter, Esther, dies giving birth to a son, Mordechay. After the funeral, their son-in-law Yochay is hesitant to accept an offer to marry a widow in Belgium and bring the newborn with him to a foreign country. Rifka’s solution is to try to convince her old daughter Shira to marry Yochay and become a good mother to Mordechay.

Shira, a mix of both sensitivity and strength, was expecting to be matched with a young man of her age and dislikes the vaguely incestuous idea of pairing up with her brother- in-law. The thoughtful Yochay has his doubts too, though he is talked into a proposal by Rifka. But he is insulted when Shira insists that an older family friend, Frieda, would be a better match for him. Eventually he comes around to the idea of marrying Shira, who at first just agrees to it not as a matter of feelings but of expediency.

The performances of Hadas Yaron as Shira,  Yiftach Klein as Yochay and Irit Sheleg as Rifka are subtle, sensitive and complex. So is the screenplay and direction by Rama Burshtein. This excellent film is an engrossing, finely etched portrait of a well-meaning community struggling to resolve their painful issues at a time of deep trouble and conflict.

(C) Derek Winnert 2013 derekwinnert.com