Tehilim

A great story that makes you think about how differently people react to personal loss. The pace and the camera-work make you feel like a privileged observer, even like a family member at times. The relationships among the family members are fascinating and seem genuine. The message about religion at the end of the film certainly sent me home thinking. I did not mean to see this film, as the one I wanted to see was sold out, and this was the first time that I I had seen an Israeli film. Try not to learn anything about the plot before you see the film. I saw the film with subtitles, which added texture to the viewing.

Tehilim received top prize in the Tokyo film ex. The jury conducted by Lee Chang Dong wrote the following statement : "The mysterious loss of the father of an average Israeli family brings to the fore a universal problem of today's world - the lack of orientation. It is left to the individual whether to see this as a human subject matter, an intimate story or a reflection of Israeli society today. It is told in a personal style, which - as world cinema- transgresses borders and religions.". The film indeed doesn't provide answers, it create a dialectical process made of questions. Tehilim is not only universal, its approach is unique integrating improvisation and great researches on location. Its simplicity is its strength, proposing a genuine renewal in film-making in Israel.

This film has no direction, no script, no good acting performances, no humour, no feeling and no humanity. The plot and storyline is totally ludicrous and unbelievable. In addition to this the film is incredibly badly made with appalling camera work, terrible lighting and sound, and looks like it wasn't edited properly. It really is an amateur attempt to made a film. It's an embarrassment to the people who made it and should never be shown in public. It certainly has no place in Israeli cinema, or in any cinema. After it ended we felt like we had totally wasted our time sitting watching it. I cannot say one good thing about this film.

Tehilim is a great film, no question about it. It is a minute of examination of the different ways in which characters react to a crisis. Though the film is small in scale it is nothing short of riveting. At the end you realize that, though the distance traveled is very small and enormous amount has happened.

The lead actor, teen-aged Michael Moshonov, broods and lurks about the screen desperately searching for a focus for his anger at his vanished father. Truth seems to be Nadjari's motivation and he focuses his lens on the minutia of his characters' movements, revealing their inner struggles in a way reminiscent of Chekov. In a world overrun with films of artifice and manufactured drama it is so wonderful to discover a film that resists falsehoods and breathes truth.

Definitely look this film up and see it!

The Israeli cinema, in general, has shown dramatic improvement for the last 10 years. Thus, I have seen many recently made Israeli movies that could easily be categorized as 'good', 'better' and 'excellent.' Alas, this movie shows that bad movies are still sometimes made there, too. I was really surprised by the rapt, ecstatic reviews given my some of the IMDb denizens. I normally very appreciate the mature, thinking crowd here. But now, guys, I'm sorry to say, it looked like a pseudo-intellectual exercise in making a vain attempt to give some meaning to the bad movie. Kind of reminded me of 'underlining metaphors' of the Vogan poetry from the "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy." I completely agree with the reviewer from Israel who gave it 1 star, was glad to find somebody sane at last. The movie had bad script (it looked like that they were filming without script at all, improvising on the fly), bad acting, terrible camera work, awful soundtrack. And if you really want to watch how a family handles the crisis of losing somebody close - watch another Israeli movie "Broken Wings", an excellent work in all respects.