Claysaba Excellent, Without a doubt!!

ActuallyGlimmer The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Allison Davies The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Madilyn Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

l_rawjalaurence Set in an orthodox Hasidic Jewish community in Tel Aviv, FILL THE VOID centers around eighteen-year-old Shira's (Haldas Yaron), decision about whether to marry widower Yochay (Yiftach Klein) or not. Yochay was already married to her sister Esther (Renana Raz), but sadly Esther passed away during childbirth. The title sums up the film's principal theme: by following her family's fishes, Shira will fill the void created by Esther's passing, and hence become a good mother to Esther and Yochay's newly-born son Mordecai. Morally speaking, she believes she is doing the right thing by accepting Yochay's offer, but director Rama Burshtein asks us to reflect on whether the decision will fill the void in Shira's life, or simply deepen it. Issues of love never seem to enter Shira's mind; she believes she is obliged to marry, and hence works hard to persuade the rabbi (Melech Thal) to sanction her decision. The film is tightly constructed as a series of close-ups and two-shots: the camera gives us a unique insight into Shira's turbulent state of mind, as she sits opposite Yochay, her head bowed, her lip quivering as she tries her best to maintain a facade of calm. Her family offer her a limited amount of support, but it's clear that they are forcing her into marriage. The only way she can obtain succor is to pray to God: in one sequence she is photographed from above, her eyes staring into the camera, as she tries to listen to His word. The ending is quite achingly poignant; in her wedding dress, Shira looks stunningly beautiful, but she cannot sit still. Her body repeatedly rocks from left to right, almost as if she is trying to lull herself into a trance- like state to cope with her forthcoming ordeal. Burshtein cuts to the wedding ceremony, where her head is covered with a white sheet; she is quite literally blinded to what follows, while the families celebrate. The film ends with the now-married couple alone after the ceremony has concluded. They stand at either end of the room and Shira stares blankly into space, underlining the irony inherent in the film's title. A low-key film, but totally compelling nonetheless.

dromasca Rama Burshtein's first feature film Lemale et ha'halal / Filling the Void was awarded the prize for the best Israeli movie in 2012 and yet, it belongs to a genre which is quite unique in the landscape of the Israeli cinema. Films about the life of the ultra-Orthodox community are made in the low numbers and I can remember only one such significant film of this kind, (the slightly better) Ha-Ushpizin. Paradoxically, Filling the Void was to some extent a reaction of the director to Gidi Dar and Shuli Rand's film, which she did not appreciate as authentic enough and respectful enough towards the ultra-Orthodox ('haredi') community (I did not have any such feeling when I saw their film). It took many years to the director (an ultra-Orthodox herself, quite a unique status in her community) and the effort deserves a lot of respect, and so does the resulting film as well.Let us try to make abstraction of the location (the small haredi community in the most secular city of Tel Aviv) and look at this film as to any other 'ethnic' movie. The story talks about the dilemma of a beautiful young girl who reached the age of marriage. In her community marriage is always arranged and blessed by the parents. There is a slight room for decision for the young woman who can meet the candidates and refuse the match if she does not like them. Not much more than this however. And there are more rules. As her elder sister dies at birth-giving, her mother takes the new born in her care, but the best interest of the family and the community is that the girl would marry the widower. The balance between duty and love can tear the soul of any young woman, but especially the one of a girl living in a community in which women's principal destiny is marriage, and where the choice happens only once in one's life. Eventually things arrange, as the widower is also the most handsome and most sensitive male around and because all decisions (important or small details of life) reach eventually the wise rabbi who plays the role of the 'deus ex machina' in the Hollywood scripts. (how appropriate this Latin expression is here).The script is far from perfect from an intrigue point of view, and there are more flaws to come. Unless the script written by Rama Burshtein for director Rama Burshtein was fully respectful to the the norms of the community she lives in she would never make the film. So there is no explicit critic or social comment whatsoever in this film, and this may make the blood boil to many feminist and not-so-feminist but secular viewers. The handling of money as a way to solve problems during the audiences at the rabbi may be considered kind of a satire, until you know that this is actually the way a Purim custom is enacted at the rabbinical courts. The lack of social comment is replaced by a painful attention to the details of the rituals and life of the community and the individuals living within. Rama Burshtein succeeds to create many charming moments of true cinema, either by unusual camera angles (the scene of the circumcision), by elaborate costumes and authentic setting, or by directing a team of actors, many of them non-religious (like Hadas Yaron and Yftach Klein in the lead roles) into the details not only of the tradition that the characters represent and of the emotions that they feel.There is a lot of curiosity and openness from the non-religious or not-so-religious sectors of the Israeli society towards the lives and feelings of the ultra-Orthodox community and this is reflected also by the success of this film. Rama Burshtein is a talented film maker but taking into consideration her community and style of life I wonder if there will be a second film at this level of achievement - because despite its flaws 'Fill the Void' is an achievement in its own way.

Howard Schumann Israeli director Rama Burshtein's powerfully moving Fill the Void, Israel's submission to the 2012 Oscars, is about love and marriage but, in the Orthodox Hasidic community in Tel Aviv, they do not necessarily go together like a horse and carriage. Hadas Yaron, winner of the Best Actress Award at the Venice Film Festival in her first film role, is eighteen year-old Shira who is very close to being matched and promised to a local young man. When her older sister Esther (Renana Raz) dies in childbirth, however, her husband, the striking-looking Yochay (Yiftak Klein), is left to raise his young son Mordecai by himself and, according to tradition, has a duty to remarry once the formal mourning period is over.This is where the film's central dilemma comes in and Shira's choice to "do the right thing" is severely tested by conflicting loyalties. After her family celebrates the Jewish holiday Purim, Shira and her mother, Rivka (Irit Sheleg) in a scene with Woody Allen overtones, are sent by the matchmaker to "shop" in the supermarket to find a suitable husband. When the right man is found, arrangements are made, even though Shira does not actually meet the young man until later in the film. When her mother learns that Yochay has a marriage offer from a widow living in Belgium, however, and cannot face the idea of the baby being taken away, she asks the matchmaker Mr. Shtreicher (Michael David Weigl) to arrange for Shira to marry Yochai, who is ten years older.Fill the Void is a heartfelt and intimate look inside a world few of us ever have contact with. Sensitive to the orthodox community's rituals and traditions, however anachronistic they may seem to us, there is a feeling behind the rituals that binds people together and produces a feeling of closeness in the community, underscored by the rhythmic chants and joyous celebrations of special occasions. Though the purpose of every girl is to be married may seem offensive, in the culture in which it takes place, it is not demeaning, and the film does not stand in judgment of its characters or of the community.As director Rama Buhrstein, a member of the Orthodox community herself, describes the film, "It's not about being an anthropologist or about religion or secularism. Rather, it's about the heart." Shira is asked to choose between her sense of duty to her family and community and her desire to fulfill her own dreams. Throughout the process, however, she is not alone and is always surrounded by love and support from mothers, fathers, aunts, rabbis, even though their advice may be conflicting. Her affectionate Aunt Hanna (Razia Israeli), who never married because of a disability, encourages Shira to do what is right for herself, putting her at odds with her mother.Shira's older unwed cousin Frieda (Hila Feldman) tells her that it was Esther's wish that she marry Yochay if anything should happen to her, a proposition Yochay rebels at. Sensing Shira's confusion and uncertainty about marrying Yochay, however, the chief Rabbi (Melech Thal) refuses to bless the marriage. Even as many emotions seem to be happening all at the same time, the resolution of the conflict is poignant and even beautiful and it all comes together in a memorable final shot.

dtmentracte A new beautiful Israeli film currently playing, is called "Fill The Void" and in truth, that it does for both the characters and the audience. It is a moving depiction of how a close knit family deals with a tragedy, expressed in the context of the Israeli Chassidic framework. The family and especially the main character, 18 year old Shira, is completely content within the community, albeit with the limits and restrictions the tradition requires. There is no sense of rebellion, no indication of a desire to live outside this framework. Rather, Shira who is of marriageable age, shows her determination to find a mate who will give her the "real family", one where there are " no lies" as she tells a prospective match on their first (and only) encounter.Because Shira's older sister, Esther, who is 9 months pregnant, suddenly dies, the idea occurs to her mother that Shira would be the perfect new wife for the newly widowed Yochay. The movie explores, with great sensitivity, the many facets of this possibility.The characters, who are played to perfection, all have their own "voids" to fill and with her screenplay, scriptwriter/director, Rama Burshtein, guides them in finding each of their answers. There is the older single girl, and Shira's parents, there is the matchmaker, and the disabled maiden aunt. We meet the Rabbi who is the very approachable leader of his community and his various congregants who feel comfortable discussing their true feelings without being judged. We are given an insight into the beauty of their lifestyle as well as a glimpse of each one's particular challenges and how they deal with them.Both Shira and Yochay struggle with their personal confusions and challenges as they ultimately come to the decision that will shape the rest of their lives. Suffice it to say that each character's void is filled in a way that leaves the audience both moved and satisfied.