Fill the Void

Moving Orthodox-Jewish family drama
"Fill the Void" (2012 release from Israel; 90 min.) brings a very intimate look into the world of Israel's ultra-Orthodox Hasidic community. As the movie opens, we get to know Shira, an 18 year old woman who is keeping her eyes open about her marriage options (she secretly has her eyes on a young man whom she meets from afar in the dairy section of the grocery store). We also get to know Shira's older sister Esther, who is nine months pregnant with her first-born and due any minute. Then disaster strikes and Esther dies in labor, leaving a big void to fill in the lives of her loved ones: her sister Shira, her mother, and of course her husband Yochay, not to mention the new-born baby. It's not long thereafter that Yochay is contemplating offers for a new marriage, including one from Belgium, as well as one from Frieda, a friend of Shira's and Esther's, and also Shira herself at the insistence of Shira's and Esther's mother. At this point we are only about 30 minutes into the movie...
What would you do?
I enjoyed this movie because it gave me food for thought. It posed basic ethical and consequence questions in a fresh and interesting way. What would you do if you were placed in a situation where your potential future well being and happiness came because of another's death? How much does family loyalty and cultural norms mean to you in the face of your personal truth and honor?

Shira, the would be new wife of her sister's dead husband is confronted with these ethical issues. The writer and actors masterfully show us the journey to the final decision. This movie is also a touching and sensitive snapshot of an orthodox jew's outlook on problem solving; such as the community involvement, family closeness (sometimes positive, sometimes negative) and going to G-D in prayer for help.

I say well done and worth watching a few times to enjoy the quiet messages and symbolism.
Shame on Sony
Review of the film: Breathtaking, Absolute Perfection. No more words needed.

Review of the Abhorrent Studio releasing this to the US home market: (that would be Sony):
Horrid imbeciles who Must Be On Drugs.

They have deemed this glorious work of art to be only worth a DVD and are not releasing this at all on Blu-Ray. You read that correctly. Not a typo. They should fire themselves for being so ignorant of the market of people who will actually spend money to purchase this masterpiece.

The discerning folk who love this film are exactly the demographic who long ago switched to Blu-Ray and have tossed our outdated 1990's DVD players into the trash bin or buried them underground to be discovered in the future as the time capsule relic that DVD has been for some time now.

Good luck selling this in DVD format, Sony.

You have forced me to purchase the JAPANESE BOOTLEG BLU-RAY, which has double the resolution of your DVD and...
Click to Editorial Reviews