Fill the Void (Lemale et ha'halal) (2012)

Drama

Director: Rama Burshtein
Writer: Rama Burshtein
Starring: Hadas Yaron, Yiftach Klein, Irit Sheleg, Chayim Sharir

Shira is the 18-year-old daughter of a rabbi of an ultra-orthodox Hasidic community in Tel Aviv, Israel. Her older sister Esther is expecting a baby with her husband Yochai. For the first time in her life, she contemplates the prospect of marriage and fortunately, she appears to be promised by her family to a suitor of her own age that she is very happy about. But after the sudden passing of her sister Esther, who dies in childbirth, Shira is faced with a difficult choice: will she take her sister's place alongside a man several years her senior and raise his and her sister's child as her own, or does she go against her mother's whishes and go on her own path.

Written and directed Rama Burshtein, herself is an insider to the Hasidic faith, the film represents an opportunity to view the clothing, the mannerisms, the music and the other unique characteristics of Israel's ultra-Orthodox Hasidic community, offering outsiders a glimpse into their world, in which the word of the rabbi is absolute, marriages are aranged and a woman's outside options are limited.

Described as the first feature film directed by an Orthodox Israeli woman, Fill the Void is a transfixing, emotionally complex drama about life, death, family and tradition, with a most noteworthy performance from Hadas Yaron, that brought her the Venice Film Festival's lead actress award.

Plot summary from IMDb: A young Hasidic Jewish woman is pressured into an arranged levirate marriage to an older widower.

Awards: 13 wins & 16 nominations.
Runtime: 90 min
PG