Houston Jewish Film Festival: Jewish family on the path to reconciliation
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Scene from “All About the Levkoviches”
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Within the first 10 minutes of the movie “All About the Levkoviches,” we meet all the important characters in this family film.
There’s Tamas Levkovich, a boxing coach; his wife, Szuzsa; and Feri, a most promising boxer whom Tamas treats like a son. They live in contemporary Budapest, Hungary.
And there’s Tamas’ son, Ivan, and grandson, Ariel, who live in Israel. Tamas has not spoken to Ivan for eight years, ever since his son became religious.
When Szuzsa dies suddenly of a stroke, son and grandson arrive in Budapest for a week to sit shiva.
“All About the Levkoviches” will screen on Saturday, April 5, the closing night of the Houston Jewish Film Festival at 8:30 p.m., in the Evelyn Rubenstein Jewish Community Center’s Kaplan Theatre.
At the funeral service, the Hungarian rabbi tells the minyan that Szuzsa is gone “but her soul is still here among us.”
The next morning Ivan wakes up to see Ariel having tea with Grandma. “Grandma’s soul has already left at the cemetery,” he tells Ariel.
“No, she’s still here,” replies Ariel. “She woke me up.”
What is supposed to happen during the shiva period? We grieve over the loss of a loved one. We remember in the company of community. We comfort. We reconcile. And ideally, we begin to heal.
As the shiva moves forward, Tamas and his son argue and recall their grievances with each other. (The actual film title in its original Hungarian is “The Levkoviches Are Grieving.”) They both have deep hurts that have not been talked about for years. Now, together for a week in a house of mourning, father and son undergo an intensely personal evaluation of their lives and their relationship with each other.
Six-year-old Ariel perceives their conflict in concrete terms, as an evil spirit keeping Grandma imprisoned in the apartment. As Tamas and Ivan come closer to deal with Ariel’s grief, they begin to reconcile.
Director Adam Breier has masterfully mixed comedy and drama, halachic ritual and personal observance, Orthodox and atheist points of view, in order to create a film experience where the viewer can believe in the authenticity of each character. We root for each of them to reconcile and heal.
This is another “don’t miss” film at this year’s Houston Jewish Film Festival.
There’s Tamas Levkovich, a boxing coach; his wife, Szuzsa; and Feri, a most promising boxer whom Tamas treats like a son. They live in contemporary Budapest, Hungary.
And there’s Tamas’ son, Ivan, and grandson, Ariel, who live in Israel. Tamas has not spoken to Ivan for eight years, ever since his son became religious.
When Szuzsa dies suddenly of a stroke, son and grandson arrive in Budapest for a week to sit shiva.
“All About the Levkoviches” will screen on Saturday, April 5, the closing night of the Houston Jewish Film Festival at 8:30 p.m., in the Evelyn Rubenstein Jewish Community Center’s Kaplan Theatre.
At the funeral service, the Hungarian rabbi tells the minyan that Szuzsa is gone “but her soul is still here among us.”
The next morning Ivan wakes up to see Ariel having tea with Grandma. “Grandma’s soul has already left at the cemetery,” he tells Ariel.
“No, she’s still here,” replies Ariel. “She woke me up.”
What is supposed to happen during the shiva period? We grieve over the loss of a loved one. We remember in the company of community. We comfort. We reconcile. And ideally, we begin to heal.
As the shiva moves forward, Tamas and his son argue and recall their grievances with each other. (The actual film title in its original Hungarian is “The Levkoviches Are Grieving.”) They both have deep hurts that have not been talked about for years. Now, together for a week in a house of mourning, father and son undergo an intensely personal evaluation of their lives and their relationship with each other.
Six-year-old Ariel perceives their conflict in concrete terms, as an evil spirit keeping Grandma imprisoned in the apartment. As Tamas and Ivan come closer to deal with Ariel’s grief, they begin to reconcile.
Director Adam Breier has masterfully mixed comedy and drama, halachic ritual and personal observance, Orthodox and atheist points of view, in order to create a film experience where the viewer can believe in the authenticity of each character. We root for each of them to reconcile and heal.
This is another “don’t miss” film at this year’s Houston Jewish Film Festival.
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