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Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Fill the Void (2012)

This Israeli movie about a cloistered 18-year old girl named Shira in an Orthodox Hasidic community optimistically hoping to find love in an arranged marriage is claustrophobic, with shades of 'Das Boot', 'Fiddler on the Roof', and to a certain extent, 'The Godfather'.

The movie opens with Shira and her mother sureptitiously checking out prospective mates for Shira in supermarkets while her older sister Esther and Esther's handsome and loving husband Yochay await the the birth of their first child.  The ground rules are established early on in the movie--marriages are arranged but the girl has the right of refusal.  The cinematography uses close in shots and low key lighting to build suspense throughout, and the rooms of the houses are all small and filled with people.  The whole atmosphere raises suspense in a way that is at once Victorian and Mafiosa.

Then Ester dies, leaving a grief struck husband and a baby.  Tradition dictates a remarriage for him at one year, and he has an offer from a widow who he knew in childhood who now lives in Belgium.  Shira's mother cannot bear to have Esther's child leave, so she cooks up a plan to have Shira marry him.  Yochay is admittedly older than Shira, but he is also  gorgeous and successful, in contrast to the boys that Shira is considering as alternatives,  The catch is twofold--does Shira want the match, and that the rabbi won't let it go forward unless Shira can convince him that she wants the marriage.  For something as simple as who is going to marry Yochay, the movie is filled with suspense. 

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