Much of “Fill the Void” plays out in warm-lighted closeups, against backgrounds soft and fuzzy.
The style conveys the intimacy of the situation, but also the isolated, unto-itself world in which the movie takes place: a strict Orthodox sect in present-day Tel Aviv.
The rules of behavior within this community are old, inflexible and ruled by men. For filmmaker Rama Burshtein — herself a member of Israel’s Hared community — the achievement of the film is suggesting, with great delicacy, how an 18-year-old woman might carve out a tiny space for the unlikely possibility of getting what she wants. Sort of.
That doesn’t come across as a triumph, but it is an evocatively rendered process. The 18-year-old is Shira (the excellent Hadas Yaron), who modestly hopes for a satisfactory arranged marriage to an awkward but likable boy her age.
Disaster strikes with her older sister dies in childbirth, leaving behind a grieving husband (Yiftach Klein) and a baby.
Custom demands he must be married again soon, and Shira becomes a candidate, not so much because she or the new widower desire it, but because Shira’s mother (Irit Sheleg) can’t allow the family to break up.
These practical maneuvers are as ritualized as an ancient religious ceremony or a Jane Austen plot, and they are fascinating and sometimes devastating to watch.
The small facets of this world are flavorful, like the rabbi doling out wads of U.S. dollars to the faithful as a way of tiding them over a financial rough patch.
If an outsider were giving us this story, perhaps it might play more as criticism, but Burshtein’s calm hand is showing us this community rather than telling us what to think about it.
This makes our connection to Shira a complicated one. It would be easy to feel outrage if the film were condemning this antiquated system (the terrific 2001 Israeli film “Late Marriage” comes closer to that tone), but Shira gains layers of complexity because she isn’t trying to rebel against the arrangement.
Instead, she’s truly concerned about what’s best for her family, her faith and herself.
Of course, the viewer may choose to feel the outrage anyway, which is an understandable reaction.
“Fill the Void” carries a glowing vibrancy while you’re watching it — those burnished closeups do create an effect — but something troubling lingers in the aftermath.
“Fill the Void” (3 stars)
An even-handed look inside a strict Orthodox community in Tel Aviv, where a confused 18-year-old (Hadas Yaron) is pressured into a decision about possibly marrying her late sister’s husband. Full of detail, and real sympathy for the heroine. In Hebrew, with English subtitles.
Rated: PG for subject matter.
Showing: Seven Gables.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
