2019 Film Festival

film synopsis
Director Avi Nesher (Past Life, PSIFF 2017) concocts a lively drama that explores a hot-button issue: the divide between Israel's secular Jews and the ultra-Orthodox. Past Life star Joy Rieger plays Anat, a troubled young woman at odds with her entire family when she enters a Haredi community and plans to marry the newly religious Shachar, a musician previously known for his wild ways. Sasson Gabai charms as Anat's worried grandfather Shlomo, a renowned psychologist who schemes about ways to stop her. Knowing that falsehood is the thing that Anat hates most, Shlomo enlists the help of his son Yonatan, Anat's father who returns from the United States, and also Yonatan's outspoken ex-wife to prove that Shachar's reform is not what it seems. Meanwhile, the issues of a divorcing couple that Shlomo is counseling provide a counterpoint to the central narrative.