Fill the Void

Film Info

Israel 2012 Director: Rama Burshtein

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Fill the Void

Synopsis

FILL THE VOID tells the story of an Orthodox Hassidic family from Tel Aviv. Eighteen-year-old Shira is the youngest daughter of the family. She is about to be married off to a promising young man of the same age and background. It is a dream-come-true, and Shira feels prepared and excited.

On Purim, her 28 year-old sister, Esther, dies while giving birth to her first child. The pain and grief that overwhelm the family postpone Shira's promised match. Everything changes when an offer is proposed to match Yochay - the late Esther's husband - to a widow from Belgium. Yochay feels it's too early, although he realizes that sooner or later he must seriously consider getting married again. When the girls' mother finds out that Yochay may leave the country with her only grandchild, she proposes a match between Shira and the widower. Shira will have to choose between her heart's wish and her family duty...

www.sonyclassics.com fillthevoid

Cast & Crew

Director

Rama Burshtein
Producer

Assaf Amir
Screenwriter

Rama Burshtein
Director of photography

Asaf Sudry
Main Cast

Hadas Yaron, Yiftach Klein, Irit Sheleg, Chaim Sharir, Razia Israely
Editor (Cut)

Sharon Elovic
Sound

Aviv Aldema
Original Score

Yitzhak Aldema
Production Design

Ori Aminov
Costume Design

Chani Gurewitz

Director's comment

It began with the fact that my work has always focused on relationships between men and women. Marriages are never forced in Judaism. In the Hasidic world in which this film is set, parents do raise proposed matches with their children, but even then the young couple must agree. I was chatting with someone at the wedding of a friend's daughter, when a pretty young girl no older than eighteen came up to our table. She was wearing a gold watch, diamond earrings, and a ring that highlighted the stone in its setting - a clear indication that she was recently engaged. My friend congratulated her with a warm mazal tov, but still, there was something a little odd about their conversation. When the girl left, my friend said to me: "Did you see that pretty young thing? She got engaged a month ago to the husband of her late sister." That was all I needed to set my imagination into overdrive. All it needed was a brief time to stew within me before I came up with the outline for the story of FILL THE VOID.