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During an interview on Turner classic movies in 2020 Francis Ford Coppola conveyed a truth about the main character in the film. He was an actual person who Cuppola knew in his college years who was a football player who had an accident that left him with a plate in his head. Of course it took the compassionate genius of the writer to integrate an entire film around this person .

The love and affection and at times anger that the female lead had towards the person who had lost so much of his capacity to think and expressed himself, happens to be something that is replicated in many peoples lives as they face the challenge of Alzheimer's disease

Now, after a half century, this film should be released to a world that needs this model of compassion.

This film is not in the category of entertainment. It transports the viewer into experiencing a degree of pain, of emotional suffering, embodied by Penelope Cruz, that is unique in my movie going experience.

The review here "Real Magical Realism" is by a woman who experienced the same suffering when her own mother was afflicted with a disease similar to the one in this movie.

This film, moving and brilliant with no comparisons, transcends the genre of movies, so may not connect with many, but it will be so much more for others. It was filmed on a standard that is not compatible to US disk players, so it's only on Amazon, where it can be rented or purchased.

It is for those who have known emotional suffering and managed to transform the pain into an incentive to enrich other's lives.

This is cinematography in the service not of entertainment, but of the challenges, of profound pain, being subordinated to genuine love of a child, a lover and a friend.

Seventy years ago, I attended a cheder similar to what this series showed, only it was after my regular school in Washington D. C, in preparation for my Bar Mitzvah. The Rabbi had the same personality, humor and harshness and he never did go into that meaning of the commandment against adultery.

I learned how to read Hebrew, but only enough to recite the words, as I had lust come from my public school where we had sung a Christmas carol to the "King of Israel" I couldn't recall who was the leader of that new country, but I did know it wasn't Christ. Over time I have become an atheist, with very little residue of the Jewish culture so brilliantly shown in the first two episodes.

One of the writers of season 3 stated he was often stuck with writer's block. Of course, as the convoluted plot had none of the verisimilitude of the first two; exemplified by the absurdity of Akiva's young wife's death never being explained, as mortality is almost non-existent for this demographic except for murder or suicide -- left the audience hanging. This was only one of the contrived plot elements such as the convoluted mix ups of engagement with the two Shiras. Every plot line of this thread was blatantly absurd, in contrast to the realism of every element of the first two episodes.

Now for a personal touch. My wife and I watched those first two, not as binging, but as immersion in another alternative life. I walked with the characters as they strolled the streets of Jerusalem; in contrast to my ending up in a suburb with no Jews, and very few people.. For a few hours I was in that community in Israel, enjoying the common belief in authority from the head rabbis. Being close to "Hashem", to God almighty, who watches over all of us.

I knew it wasn't real, but I want to believe it was, that had I lived my life in such a community, that was so vividly conveyed to have given me solace for what I was not destined to have lived. It was an alternative life among people I belonged to, not the one that I had lived, and am growing ever closer to leaving.

It is with great appreciation that I thank those who gave me these memories, something that I am free to imagine was my life. I will ignore and forgive the artificiality of that third season, and warn anyone who has not seen it, to treat it as "tref", non-kosher, and simply keep on walking past it. .