The trailer for the movie "Silence" by Shemi Zarhin (courtesy of United King Films)
The score: three and a half stars (photo: photo processing, .)
These are pre-election days and the leading candidate for Prime Minister is not saying anything.
Really, nothing.
He does not give interviews to the media, does not give speeches, does not publish a platform.
Does not smear opponents, does not sign agreements with partners, does not promise anything to his voters.
That candidate, Aviv Itzhaki (Oshari Cohen), is not just a guy from the settlement - he is the son of a former prime minister (Eli Danker) whom the public knows and loves, among other things because he lost his wife in a tragic accident and his father is hospitalized in serious medical condition.
Whether the silence is a means of preserving empathy or it is the product the public craves, either way it works.
It works so well that suddenly Aviv is not the only one who is silent.
This is one of the heroes of the story that is now being brought to the screen by the name of Shimi Zarhin, one of the most prominent and active directors in Israel, who is especially identified with heart-warming family and personal dramas - from "Lilsada" and "The Stars of Shlomi" through "Aviva Ahuvuti" and "The World is Funny" to "The Good Words" , his last film released seven years ago.
Now the words give way to "The Silence", a film that has a lot of family but also a dark and gloomy political thriller.
The film is painted in murky shades of black and gray, which highlight even more the excessive colors of the television studios where the hero, his father (Morris Cohen), spends his days.
His father is a well-known media person, a nervous and hard-to-repress talent, somewhere between Ron Koffman and Eyal Berkovich.
His chaos and big mouth are what allow him to stay on screen but also get him into trouble over and over again.
His father knows Aviv intimately, as someone who used to be his literature teacher and a kind of surrogate father for him.
He calls his former student - live - to interview him for the first time, a call that leads to surprising developments.
And by the way surprising developments, it turns out that his father's mother (Levna Finkelstein) also chose to stop talking, and he has no idea why and what they are doing now.
without saying a word.
From "The Silence" (photo: courtesy of United King Films)
This plot summary, as busy and confusing as it is, is only a small part of the story.
The film is absolutely packed with storylines, characters, twists, hints and symbols.
There are enough conflicts and ideas here for at least three movies, and sometimes it's a bit of a shame that they all share the same frame story.
This does not mean that the story is not interesting or that the various plot lines do not connect - on the contrary, it is a film that repeatedly manages to intrigue and build tension, as it reveals more and more pieces in its huge puzzle.
Despite the essential difference between them, there is a definite connection between the stories about the silent mother and the silent politician, between which stands one man who does not stop talking but also does not really communicate with those around him.
The reality that the film depicts is not the Israeli reality we are familiar with, nor exactly a satirical exaggeration of it, but rather a kind of symbolic statement about relationships between people, family members or not, about the healing and destructive power that exists both in silence and in words.
Politics is more of a means than a subject, and even when the film touches on issues such as conspiracies, corruption and nepotism, it does so in its symbolic and not-quite-realistic way.
We were hoping to see a crooked view of Israeli politics, and that's not exactly what the film is trying to do.
It's fine, but it's also a bit of a shame.
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Phenomenal game from all three.
Morris Cohen, Livna Finkelstein and Esti Zakheim from "The Silence" (photo: courtesy of United King Films)
There is a lot to love about this movie.
It is worth watching if only for the moments when it shines and is truly moving: a disturbing and quiet family meal, soul-revealing conversations between characters or the scenes where the hero follows his mute mother by choice and is exposed to her almost surreal day-to-day life.
It's always fun to see Livna Finkelstein and Maurice Cohen, and here they do a phenomenal job as well, but the official show stealer of the film is Esti Zakheim as his father's ex-wife.
It's a somewhat tricky and ungrateful role - a difficult character who gets stung and crooked looks from the other characters, makes quite a few strange choices and is not really essential to the plot - but when Zakheim plays her it's hard not to fall in love with her.
The dynamic between her and her ex-husband softens both of them and allows us to understand the hero more deeply, and to see vulnerable and delicate sides in him that other characters do not bring out in him.
And despite all that, in the end the film feels a bit like an unfulfilled promise, or at least not fully fulfilled.
The two main stories are developed to an extent and lead to interesting situations, but also feel almost unfinished, not polished to the end.
Most of the time the problem is congestion: too many things are happening all the time and even completely dramatic moments are almost immediately abandoned for the next big thing.
The big miss is in the last act: it also has its brilliance, but it fails to sew all the layers together into a truly satisfying ending.
The result is a film that feels more like a collection of scenes, quite a few of them interesting and good, than like a single story that we want to revisit again and again.
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My name is Zrahin
Morris Cohen
Livna Finkelstein
Esti Zakheim
Oshri Cohen