My Father My Lord Soundtrack (2007)

Synopsis

Ultra-Orthodox Esther and her eight-year-old son Menachem convince their Torah-preoccupied husband / father, Rabbi Avraham Eidelman, to vacation at the Dead Sea.

Leading up to the long-awaited vacation, we see the family dynamics: Guileless and sensitive Menachem both reveres and is starved of attention from Avraham, as is Esther. Esther and Menachem are actually allies in a delicate, triangulated dance of complying with Avraham's authoritarianism while almost surreptitiously giving each other the love and affection they so sorely need.

Once on vacation, adherence to the strictures of Torah don't end. Without missing a beat, Avraham herds the men out of the water for mid-day prayers. Always piously taking the longest to pray, he's so engrossed in prayer that he doesn't notice that Menachem, who slipped off earlier to catch more fish in an estuary, ran into the sea despite his not knowing how to swim.

Having insisted on finishing his prayers properly, by the time Avraham does, it's too late.

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