The Testament

One of the best movies to be made in Israel last year. Great script, acting, photography and soundtrack. A film you will think about long after you have seen it. Should have been Israel's submission to the Oscar Awards under the "Best Foreign Film" category.

This is a good film about Jewish identity and the Holocaust but it needed more context in the script so that the plot would be better understood. The names and events were not defined clearly enough for viewers to follow along and understand the plot. Showing charts and film clips are just not enough to make it all come together in a coherent manner. Would have been superb if this level of detail was dealt with, and some of the irrelevant scenes eliminated. There is just not enough background provided to make the film totally understandable.

The synopsis and the explanation of the event that this is based on are on the website already, so to reiterate them is a waste of space. I will simply say that this movie works on a lot of levels. To give too much away will spoil what is a mystery story that unfolds slowly and carefully. But in particular, it is about a very devout person whose entire emotional and religious foundation erodes as he is trying to find evidence of a great crime that took place during WWII.

It also reminds us that things may not be what they seem, and that the responsibilities of giving testimony to real events may have an effect many years after they occur.

This movie is wonderfully written, acted and directed.

I had the honor and pleasure to watch the premiere at the Haifa Film Festival (First prize in the best film competition), a quality movie experience. The film deals with a complex and sensitive subject in a fascinating plot, Uri Pfeffer in an excellent and moving game. Go and watch it, you will not regret

Yoel Halberstam is an Israeli Holocaust researcher, a former 'haredi' (super-religious) Jew who has left the yehiva but still maintains an Orthodox lifestyle. He is the divorced father of a 12-year-old boy studying for his Bar-Mitzvah. Living a very frugal life, he is trying to uncover the details of a massacre that occurred in 1945 in Lensdorf, Austria, in which 200 Jews were massacred, and which has been covered up by everyone involved.

Lensdorf is a fictional village, based on Rechnitz, Austria, which did conduct a massacre, whose details are even more horrible than the one in the film.

Halberstam is fighting an Austrian attempt to literally cover up the killing ground. In the course of his investigations, he uncovers information that could badly affect him, his family, and his lifestyle. Will he push on?

Quiet and low-key, The Testament is riveting and very believable. The star, Ori Pfeffer, is on camera in nearly every scene, and you can't take your eyes off him. He has perfectly mastered the body language and facial expressions of the 'hardal' (nearly haredi) male.

The most chilling line is given by one of the survivors: "The war is still going on". When you see The Testament, you'll understand why.