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'My Father My Lord'

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John Anderson

May 16, 2008

If you're going to take on fundamentalist religion, it's less wise to use a meat ax than a rapier. Which is exactly how writer-director David Volach engages ultra Orthodox Jews of his "My Father My Lord," a highly provocative, unmistakably critical drama set among Israel's Haredim (the director is himself the product of a Haredic community in Jerusalem).

Seducing the viewer via a portrait of an idyllic family, Volach gives us 10-year-old Menahem (the beautiful Eilan Grif), whose father, Abraham (Assi Dayan), is a rabbi and Talmudic scholar. While Abraham and wife, Esther (Sharon Hacohen Bar), envelop their son with love, they also have to deal with the boy's growing questions about his parents' worldview, and, presumably, God's. When tragedy befalls the family, one has to ask: Is Volach implying divine intervention? Or something less holy, like rabbinical fear?

A beautifully made film, one that possesses a troubling visual sense of spiritual corruption.

MY FATHER MY LORD (unrated). 1:13. In Hebrew with English subtitles. At Cinema Arts Centre, Huntington; Lincoln Plaza and Cinema Village, Manhattan.