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Father Knows Worst

David Volach was born in Jerusalem into an ultra-Orthodox Jewish family of 19 children. He was schooled at the Ponevezh Talmudical yeshiva, as religious an indoctrination as is possible in Judiasm. His world was limited to the Haredi community that is insulated from everything else in Israel. These people live together, study together and that about covers it. Nothing else goes on except for a lot of procreation, of course.

At the age of 25, Volach broke ties with this group and ventured into secularism and eventually to the world of cinema. "My Father My Lord" is his writing and directorial debut and while it is a deep expression of human feelings, its pace is so slow that by the time the story takes off it's over.

Menahem Eidelman (Ilan Griff) is an only child who lives with his gentle and loving mother (Sharon Hacohen-Bar) and his father (Assi Dayan), the rabbi of the community. The rabbi is a good man who means well but his adherence to the letter of the law of the Torah is ultimately his undoing. Menahem is a child who is expressing a natural curiosity towards everything, even if it does not pertain to religion. While his classmates robotically follow their teacher's lessons, Menahem watches a dove on the windowsill of the classroom as it tends to its newborns. His father disapproves of his son's curiosity and makes sure to step on it whenever it appears.

Watching Volach unfold the story is exhausting. As a director he lingers over every single silent shot in an attempt for us to derive great meaning from it. Unfortunately, the primary effect is to make us glassy-eyed as we wait to find out his point. It is not until the majority of "My Father My Lord" has passed that Volach reveals the real conflict and tension.

Menahem and his parents take a trip to the Dead Sea for a vacation. Because of how religious the family is, Menahem's mother must stay at a different part of the beach. It is at the Dead Sea that we see even a glimpse of normalness from the rabbi. Menahem and his father play in the sand and water and at least for a little while they could be any father and son on vacation.

Because praying is such a vital part of their lives it comes as no surprise when all of the men in the water head back to land for afternoon prayers. Menahem lags behind the group because of his fascination with a small fish he has caught and placed into a plastic bag. Prayers go on without Menahem until the stillness is shattered by his disappearance.

It is within the aftermath of tragedy that the cracks of the family unit grow and explode. Menahem's mother understands that there is a balance between religion and everything else. His father, despite everything that has just happened still doesn't get it and this dearly upsets and infuriates her. At the end we feel her pain but cannot fathom his inability to grasp what he has just experienced. "My Father My Lord" is a very short 70 minutes and yet feels 40 minutes too long. What might have been a great story is instead an incredibly slow moving non-adventure. Oy.