Review by: Luis Pedron of Fanclubx.com
Tribeca Film Festival 2007
A Film that showed the life of a traditional Orthodox Haredic family from Jerusalem.
The Father Rabbi Abraham is devoted in living and studying the Torah and the Jewish Law.
His wife is dedicated to taking care of her husband and their young energetic son Menahem.
They all live a normal but very religious life.
Menahem is at the point now that his parents are exposing him to their faith and he is like a sponge absorbing all that is around him.
One day at a summer trip to the Dead Sea everything halts to a stop….
The husband and wife are torn apart. Their faith are challenged. Doubt, hate and mistrust pervade the house.
This film shows how faith control our actions and decisions. God has always been the center of most people’s lives wherever they are. Here is a quote from the director David Vollach “In ’My Father My Lord,” I wanted to demonstrate the foundations of atheistic excitement, which are ingrained in us since childhood - the natural curiosity through which life is observed; the encountering of events as they are, without a self - imposed meaning; emotions accessed directly, devoid of hierarchic discipline - a world view full of wonder.”
People have followed their faith, people have questioned their faith… catastrophic incidences in life bring people closer to God and in some cases father to God.
The film painstakingly portrays the relationship in a family where in the father is the ultimate authority, the mother seconds the husband and the kid can not question authority. This is the norm in most families around the world. The film’s power is in the performances of the family naturalistic in their style they showed what family’s truly are flawed but true…..
The film is shown in through the eyes of a child. Everything seems rosey, no problems, everything is new and interesting. For us the viewer who have lived life, we can’t help but think… wait until you grow up…..
I actually enjoyed seeing a different world in this film where the life is still simple and religion is the middle of their daily lives… I myself have lived that life as I was growing up but not to this extreme.
In the film when the big problem arouse the Father kept his faith to some degree but the faith lost it all. Relationsips were destroyed.
The filmmaker David Volach is also quoted as saying “ I wish to cast doubt upon the emotional reliability of anything that binds us via the unholy trinity of Authority, Discipline and Meaning.”
This films makes you think, feel and wonder……
8 out of 10
Tribeca Film Festival 2007 info about My Father My Lord
