Fill The Void
Director: Rama Burshtein
Cast: Hadas Yaron, Chaim Sharir, Ido Samuel, Irit Sheleg, Yiftach Klein, Hila Feldman, Renana Raz
Rating: (M)
4 stars (out of 5)
Peeking into the world of Orthodox Jews is seldom done, so to set an intensely personal drama inside a Tel Aviv ''Haredi'' community is pretty daring.
Although, when the director is herself an Orthodox Jew, the issue of authenticity is taken care of.
Filmed almost entirely indoors among homely trappings and religious ephemera, the central character is 18-year-old Shira Mendelman (Hadas Yaron).
Awaiting an arranged marriage to a man she likes, Shira's world is suddenly turned upside down when her older sister Esther passes away during childbirth.
With a baby to take care of, Shira's mother Rivka (Irit Sheleg) steps into the void to help out her son-in-law Yochay (Yiftach Klein).
However, soon word of Yochay's loss has hit the Haredi grapevine and he has a marriage proposal from Belgium.
Fearing the loss of her son-in-law and grandson, Rivka hatches a plan to marry Shira to Yochay, neither of whom are keen.
Arranged marriage is the theme but what transpires is something more complex and subtle.
In dealing with the machinations within strict codes of conduct, director Rama Burshtein searches for a way not to break free from the community, but to live within it.
Shot so evocatively that almost every frame could be printed and mounted, the extremely shallow depth of field and lingering closeups perfectly capture the awkward tension between family members.
For anyone unfamiliar with Orthodox Judaism, Fill the Void will be hard to get your head around, but once you get on board, the larger themes won't seem foreign.
Best thing: The phenomenal cast of non-Orthodox actors.
Worst thing: Too few amusing interludes, which provide a nice relief from the oppression.
See it with: Some understanding of how the Orthodox community differs from secular Israelis.
