Lemale et ha'halal 2012

Stephanie Merry, Washington Post: Beautiful and mysterious, the[se] first glimpses are an ideal primer for the Israeli film, which never rushes to spell out the meanings of its subtle and quiet moments. Read more

A.O. Scott, New York Times: Both accessible and thrilling. Read more

A.A. Dowd, AV Club: [Burshtein has] reinvigorated a familiar narrative by painting it against an unfamiliar backdrop. Read more

Peter Keough, Boston Globe: Burshtein has achieved a gripping film without victims or villains, an ambiguous tragedy drawing on universal themes of love and loss, self-sacrifice and self-preservation. Read more

Ben Sachs, Chicago Reader: None of the religious rituals feels particularly spiritual, and even the nominally happy ending fails to alleviate the oppressive tone. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: An elegant miniature, Rama Burshtein's "Fill the Void" labors under a narrative inevitability, but it's artful work nonetheless. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: I left Fill the Void feeling privileged, however briefly, to have been brought into this world. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: There's a clotted and cramped feeling to "Fill the Void" that's downright creepy. Read more

Jordan Hoffman, Film.com: Practically an ethnographic film Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: Burshtein's cinematic experience has more than honed her quietly effective and inherently dramatic filmmaking style, it's deepened her gift for emotional honesty, for knowing the truth of a situation and how to convey it to an audience. Read more

John Anderson, Newsday: Burshtein creates a one-of-a-kind portrait that nonetheless transcends its setting, and even its worldview; the dynamics are global. Read more

Richard Brody, New Yorker: This romantic melodrama, written and directed by Rama Burshtein, has an irresistible allure despite its bathetic drift. Read more

Ella Taylor, NPR: A love poem to the ultra-Orthodox world as seen from within. Read more

Farran Smith Nehme, New York Post: Trouble is, while the social milieu is nicely realized, other parts of the drama are not. Too often Burshtein cuts off a scene prematurely, darting away just as the crucial moment of emotion or confrontation appears. Read more

Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer: [Burshtein's] subject is a woman's right to choose her spouse, and what a weighty, giddy, confusing, clarifying and, ultimately, sacred choice that is. Read more

Susan Wloszczyna, Chicago Sun-Times: [Burshtein] vividly depicts a clannish culture that is likely to feel foreign and perhaps off-putting to generations that came of age in a progressive post-feminist era. Read more

Walter V. Addiego, Hearst Newspapers: "Fill the Void," a compelling and skillfully made domestic drama, is a rarity, a film that's both set within, and emerges from, a devoutly religious world. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: A moody, exquisitely told tale of love and duty. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: It's an artful, character-driven drama that constitutes a minor miracle of empathy. Read more

Nell Minow, Chicago Sun-Times: A sympathetic, layered portrayal, rich with detail, that earns its more complex and resonant conclusion. Read more

Trevor Johnston, Time Out: This is an extraordinary first film, nerve-tingling in its intensity, and assembled with a finesse and control even the great Austrian director Michael Haneke might envy. Read more

Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out: The film isn't exactly rousing in its conclusion, but it's always respectful: a serious ethical inquiry into matters of women's choice, both imposed and seized upon. Check it out. Read more

Diana Clarke, Village Voice: From the dense, textured carpet of her characters' emotions, Burshtein draws gorgeous threads and holds them to the light. Read more