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An intensely painful and sombre film about an Orthodox Jewish family

An intensely painful and sombre film from Israeli writer-director David Volach, about an Orthodox Jewish family, which provides a variation on the theme of Abraham and Isaac. Assi Dayan and Sharon Hacohen play Rabbi Abraham and his wife Esther, and Ilan Griff is Menahem, their adored little boy, all agog at the family's forthcoming trip to the Dead Sea.

The rabbi is ferociously stern with his son, even demanding that he rip up a picture of an African tribesman on the grounds that this man is indulging in "idolatry". Yet his face lights up with love in the little boy's presence. The story is inexpressibly sad, and the movie is intelligent, severe and austere in equal parts.

• Released on Boxing Day.

Rating: 3/5

DramaWorld cinemaPeter Bradshaw

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By Michael Atkinson

Just in time for the holidays, particularly Chanukah and Eid al-Adha (okay, that was a few weeks ago), here come two new Mideast films that quietly tear into the bilious, ruinous hypocrisies of fundamentalist religion. It's an ironic conflict from where we stand: nothing is as ripe and ready for the firing squad as reactionary religious discipline, and yet few social codes are as ubiquitous. What's more, they all somehow demand "respect." Outside of most neighborhoods in most American and European metropoli, you can hardly throw an Orwell paperback without hitting and infuriating a narrow-minded fundamentalist, and I suppose how you measure the attack-mode nuts of David Volach's "My Father My Lord" (2007) and Özer Kiziltan's "Takva: A Man's Fear of God" (2006) depends on how strenuously you feel the press of "extreme tradition" (my phrase!) in your own life. The movies seem from a New Yorker's perspective to go gently,...

It's easy to see why this award-winning film about the travails of an ultra-Orthodox Israeli family bears an undeniable stamp of authenticity: David Volach, its writer-director, was raised in such an environment -- he had 19 siblings -- until he began a process of secularization that eventually resulted in his studying film.

Although his impressionistic debut feature is somewhat lacking in terms of narrative, "My Father, My Lord" provides a vivid and deeply felt portrait of the generation struggle that can occur in such circumstances.

The brief film revolves around the growing conflict that occurs in the family headed by Rabbi Eidelman, whose strict adherence to the Torah is not easily understood by his questioning young son Menachem (Ilan Griff).

Spotting a loyal dog following his stricken master into an ambulance, Menachem asks his father if good animals go to heaven. "Animals have no souls" is the brusque reply. Other incidents, involving a dove that has nested on the family's windowsill and a photograph of African tribesmen, produce similarly dogmatic actions.

Although a tragic incident that occurs in the final minutes lends the proceedings a gratuitously melodramatic tinge, the film handles its all too relevant subject matter with real sensitivity and acute observation.

Adding greatly to the overall impact are the superb performances by Dayan, one of Israel's leading actors; Sharon Hacohen Bar, as Menachem's tender-hearted mother, and Griff, wonderfully natural as the questioning youth.