An impressive debut by 37-year-old Israeli writer-director David Volach, "My Father My Lord" squeezes more humanity into 72 minutes than most Hollywood movies can muster in two hours or more.
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10/03/08
My Father My Lord (2008)
93 %
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted: 27
Fresh: 25
Rotten:2
Average Rating: 7.5/10
Consensus: This beautiful Israeli film is both a moving family drama and a potent examination of the trials of faith.
Reviews for My Father My Lord
David Volach's understated condemnation of religious extremism makes its points in lethally solemn tones, with neither caricature nor ridicule.
10/02/08
Volach doesn't waste a word or action in his spare, finely crafted screenplay.
08/01/08
[Director David] Volach makes every moment count by holding tight close-ups on the faces of his extraordinarily tender, expressive cast, framing them with an elegant beauty.
07/24/08
It's an affecting portrait of family life that gives way to a profound depiction of faith shaken to its roots.
07/11/08
My Father My Lord is an impressive first feature that stands out for its emotional qualities, its ambition and its brevity. In this day of endless epics, this 73-minute Israeli film manages to do a lot with very little time.
07/11/08
Top Critic A surefooted and frequently touching revisionist retelling of the Abrahamic narrative that, while hardly revolutionary, is certainly evocative and provocative.
07/11/08
A cry of anguish not against Judaism itself but against fundamentalist adherence to the letter rather than the spirit of living well by doing good.
07/10/08
David Volach has created a drama that, in retrospect, feels positively biblical.
06/27/08
As sparse as a Torah narrative, it raises profound theological and emotional questions.
06/27/08
The believable, full performances of the principal three characters touch the heart and the tragedy [of their story] hits home.
06/23/08
The believable, full performances of the principal three characters touch the heart and the tragedy [of their story] hits home.
06/23/08
My Father My Lord lasts just 73 minutes, and I spent the first hour or so wondering what the director-writer, David Volach, was getting at in his nearly plotless feature debut.
05/16/08
Writer-director David Volach elegantly shot and scored debut is a bold, intimate look at Israel's extremely insular ultra-Orthodox Jewish, or "Haredic," community, largely seen through the eyes of an intransigent rabbi's young son.
05/16/08
My Father My Lord has the glowing simplicity and force of a biblical parable.
05/16/08
Top Critic The acting here is also worthy, but it's the conversation the film should generate that most excites.
05/16/08
My Father My Lord is short, quiet, and shot in a style that favors closeness and intimacy, yet [director] Volach is able to convey in small strokes how a few rooms and buildings can become a child's whole universe.
05/15/08
A parabolic Israeli film which speaks volumes about the nature of devotion to God.
05/15/08
A beautifully made film, one that possesses a troubling visual sense of spiritual corruption.
05/15/08
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