Fill the Void

Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics, Sundance, Reshet Broadcasting, and Avi Chai fund.

Israeli powerhouse Rama Burshtein is the first female Orthodox Jewish director to make a film outside of the community, for wider distribution. She wrote and directed "Fill the Void," a film about the marital prospects of Shira, who realizes she wants to marry her sister's widower.

 The biggest themes in most Jewish stories, seems to be the lack of parity between the secular and Orthodox. Burshtein has noted that there aren't many films about the positives of her community, and the closeness that faith affords. She has made a film that both illuminates the truth of how marriages are arranged, and does away with misconceptions of women being forced into them. Our main character has agency in her fate, though she wants to be married desperately. She works through her fidelity to her family, while also discovering how she truly feels for Yochay.

 Many themes of Jane Austen's writing emerge throughout the story. The character of Frieda mirrors "Pride and Prejudice’s" Charlotte Lucas, a woman without any prospects, trying to find her footing in the community. The themes of love, marital yearning, family loyalty, and desperation are seen throughout this film. There's a lot of grief in the situation, but for the most part the film follows Shira in finding someone to marry. The film drives the point home that marriage and family are the most important aspects of living in the Orthodox community. While this is a very archaic, slightly charmed view of the world, there exists a level of modernity in the setting. The reality of living in Tel Aviv comes to a head, especially in a scene where an elderly Jewish woman interrupts an traditionalist meeting to ask the rabbi about buying an appliance.

The old world often interrupts the present in this film, through ceremony, tradition, and familial loyalty. This is a truly huge accomplishment for the Orthodox Jewish community, who are given a lot of good exposure in this film. It's not a film that always excites, but that's because it's dealing with the realities of a country that is waylaid by its past and present. Beautiful in its appearance, "Fill the Void," is another entry into a long list of films that illuminate an underrepresented people.