Redemption

One of the leading lights of contemporary Israeli cinema, Joseph Madmony (Restoration) returns to the Festival, in collaboration with co-writer/director Boaz Yehonatan Yacov, for this spiritually rousing, emotionally intelligent story of despair, exhilaration, and faith.

Menachem (Moshe Folkenflik) is a middle-aged single father struggling to finance his cancer-stricken six-year-old daughter’s formidable medical expenses with his meagre income as a grocery clerk. He had fronted a rock-and-roll band until personal tragedies prompted his retirement from music and the adoption of a devoted Hasidic practice that alienated most of his old friends.

Playing music promises to be more lucrative than stocking shelves, but would a return to singing be compatible with a life of worship?

By focusing its energies squarely on Menachem’s existential crisis and its sources — his fierce love for his daughter, his sense of fulfillment as a performer, his humility as a novice Hasid — Redemption finds an exquisite balance between the secular and the religious. Folkenflik’s performance is beautifully graded, traversing a broad spectrum of grief, rage, and exaltation. Though most of their gigs are at weddings, the scenes of the band reviving their old songs are mesmerizing and energetic — these guys can still rock out.

Madmony and Yacov are filmmakers of tremendous discernment and grace, their camera never overly intrusive, and the storytelling never maudlin or forced. Redemption exudes a rare wisdom regarding the arduous choices we make to uphold our convictions, let go of the past, and embrace an uncertain future with an open heart.

JANE SCHOETTLE