Posted: 05/31/2010

For My Father

by Bridget Ascenzo

For My Father – in Hebrew, Sof Shavua B’Tel Aviv (Weekend in Tel Aviv) – is director Dror Zahavi’s beautifully shot, immensely moving film that presents a tight, compelling snapshot of human connection plucked from an extraordinary situation of roiling mistrust, heartache, desperation and hate.

We meet the protagonist, Tarek, on what he thinks is the last day of his life. In the film’s opening shots he awakes for the last time to his mother’s gentle exhortation, sits mutely in the backseat of a car speeding towards Tel Aviv as he is hooked into a bomber’s vest, strides purposefully through Carmel Market, reaches for the switch on his wrist (wincing as he prepares for detonation) and then – instead of the end, the beginning of a new, more complicated chapter of his life.

While trying to repair the faulty switch and complete his suicide mission, Tarek is taken in by proud, wounded Mr. Katz and his fragile wife Ziporah and becomes infatuated with beautiful, willful Keren who is determined to support herself after being cut off from her Orthodox Jewish family. As Tarek continues to forge connections with the people is charged with killing, he reflects more on the people he’s left behind, specifically his ailing father. His weekend in Tel Aviv drawing to a close, he heads back to the marketplace for the defining moment of his young life.

As Tarek, Shredi Jabarin offers an understated, brooding performance of a thoughtful young man who feels himself running out of options. Hili Yalon as his love interest Keren is charming and vulnerable in her determination and frustration at trying to live beyond religious and societal intolerance. Their hesitant dance of mutual affection and tenderness, clouded as it is by their respective secrets, is incredibly touching.

Shlomo Vishinsky as Katz, the repair shop proprietor who takes Tarek in, is brilliantly minimalist in his portrayal of a superficially vociferous yet deeply sensitive man railing against the constraints of the xenophobia that surrounds him. One of the first shots of this character is him taking in a newspaper headline warning of an Arab sneaking in past the Israeli checkpoint; within a few frames, he’s approached by a young Arab stranger who insists on him repairing an on/off switch. That his response is to welcome the stranger into his home and emphatically defend him against the suspicions of his neighbors is unexpected and mostly unexplained, with an intriguing exception toward the very end of the film.

For all the film’s strengths, at times its twists seem too neat, almost fantastical – how many denizens of Tel Aviv would take in an Arab stranger who approach them insisting that they repair an on/off switch forthwith? How many would-be suicide bombers have the option of professional minor league soccer to fall back on? These incredulous strands give the story the feeling of a parable more than a plausible slice of life.

Still, For My Father is an engaging story supported by gorgeous camera work, excellent acting, a compelling score (thanks to Misha Segal and several sweetly reflective Hebrew pop songs) and, at its core, the simple, eternally hopeful idea that human connection can spring up and thrive even in the midst of humanity’s ugliest expressions.

For more information on this film, please visit Film Movement’s official websitehttp://www.filmmovement.com/filmcatalog/index.asp?MerchandiseID=206.

Bridget Ascenzo is a freelance writer and singer living on Chicago’s north side.

Got a problem? E-mail us at filmmonthly@gmail.com