Tehilim

A great story that makes you think about how differently people react to personal loss. The pace and the camera-work make you feel like a privileged observer, even like a family member at times. The relationships among the family members are fascinating and seem genuine. The message about religion at the end of the film certainly sent me home thinking. I did not mean to see this film, as the one I wanted to see was sold out, and this was the first time that I I had seen an Israeli film. Try not to learn anything about the plot before you see the film. I saw the film with subtitles, which added texture to the viewing.

The Israeli cinema, in general, has shown dramatic improvement for the last 10 years. Thus, I have seen many recently made Israeli movies that could easily be categorized as 'good', 'better' and 'excellent.' Alas, this movie shows that bad movies are still sometimes made there, too. I was really surprised by the rapt, ecstatic reviews given my some of the IMDb denizens. I normally very appreciate the mature, thinking crowd here. But now, guys, I'm sorry to say, it looked like a pseudo-intellectual exercise in making a vain attempt to give some meaning to the bad movie. Kind of reminded me of 'underlining metaphors' of the Vogan poetry from the "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy." I completely agree with the reviewer from Israel who gave it 1 star, was glad to find somebody sane at last. The movie had bad script (it looked like that they were filming without script at all, improvising on the fly), bad acting, terrible camera work, awful soundtrack. And if you really want to watch how a family handles the crisis of losing somebody close - watch another Israeli movie "Broken Wings", an excellent work in all respects.

Tehilim is a great film, no question about it. It is a minute of examination of the different ways in which characters react to a crisis. Though the film is small in scale it is nothing short of riveting. At the end you realize that, though the distance traveled is very small and enormous amount has happened.

The lead actor, teen-aged Michael Moshonov, broods and lurks about the screen desperately searching for a focus for his anger at his vanished father. Truth seems to be Nadjari's motivation and he focuses his lens on the minutia of his characters' movements, revealing their inner struggles in a way reminiscent of Chekov. In a world overrun with films of artifice and manufactured drama it is so wonderful to discover a film that resists falsehoods and breathes truth.

Definitely look this film up and see it!

Cinema is a pleasant fiction. God is a useful elaboration of texts and emotions. Religion is a useful fiction, a construction on absence and death. The Talmud is a bushy bunch of burning questions, to explore or not, for the Talmud is keen on democracy and freedom of speech. Contrary to formal logic, TEHILIM begins with answers, then makes way for questions, or rather the characters are living questions who touch one another sometimes, even hug when mother gives a cuddle to son. TEHILIM also turns us moviegoers into uncomfortably seated questions. TEHILIM is a short story, not a novel, which sails at full speed from illusion to allusion. TEHILIM is a beautiful tale, a silent movie of sorts, for us to make use of.

Tehilim is a tale about a son dealing with a father's disappearance. it is also a very religious movie in this very sense, the father son relationship, or lack of it, resembles one's attempt to discover god in his life. faith and god are illusive elements and he who seeks redemption by finding one or both of them must endure some kind of suffering. in Tehilim, this suffer remains terribly untreated by the film's writers.

A documentary approach is taken by the director, which is somewhat subtle, but still voyeuristic enough to make us feel uncomfortable in front of some scenes. the main problem is, therefore, lack of real drama in the movie, and illogic occurrences that take place in some parts of the film. the strongest feeling that I had during watching it is "please, get to the point or finish." I don't want to write spoilers in this review, since the film debuts this week in Israel. I will only say that Tehilim is one of the strongest attempts ever made in Israel to make a truly religious work of art, but due to tragic screen writing failures this film is doomed to be an unfulfilled attempt. what a shame!