Director Volach was exhausted today after receiving Tribeca's 2007 Founder's Award for Best Narrative Feature, but gamely answered questions after the screening. He speaks with some authority on the Haredi community he depicts as Volach was born and raised into it but no longer participates because as he says, he has simply "grown up." The original title translates to "Summer Vacation" but this was felt too pat for American and European audiences.
Film stars Assaf Dayan (son of the mono-eyed hero) a notoriously secular Israeli playing Rav Avrohom, at middle-age a relatively young, minor sage of slight conceit in Jerusalem's profoundly orthodox communities. His wife Esther is much younger and dotes on their only child Menachem, a sweetly innocent cheder boy. Esther is the saintly core of the small family's blissful domestic life. Every frame is lovingly crafted in this finely acted and scored film, which drives hard and true to its excruciating conclusion.
Film stars Assaf Dayan (son of the mono-eyed hero) a notoriously secular Israeli playing Rav Avrohom, at middle-age a relatively young, minor sage of slight conceit in Jerusalem's profoundly orthodox communities. His wife Esther is much younger and dotes on their only child Menachem, a sweetly innocent cheder boy. Esther is the saintly core of the small family's blissful domestic life. Every frame is lovingly crafted in this finely acted and scored film, which drives hard and true to its excruciating conclusion.