Directed by Guy Nattiv

With Michael Moshonov, Ronit Elkabetz, Tzahi Grad

Israel, Canada, France, Germany, 2011

97 min.

Hebrew with English Subtitles

Tolstoy famously claimed that unhappy families are each uniquely unhappy—and, by extension, uniquely compelling. The makers of Mabul (The Flood), a heartfelt and exquisitely rendered drama from Israel, are destined to prove Tolstoy right. Director Guy Nattiv (codirector of Strangers, SFJFF’s opening night film in 2008), screenwriter Noa Berman-Herzberg and a brilliant cast bring such humanity and depth to this drama about a dysfunctional family that it took three top awards—including best Israeli feature—at the recent Haifa International Film Festival and six Ophir nominations (Israeli Academy Awards). The accolades are richly deserved. On a tumble-down collective farm stretching along Israel’s Mediterranean coast, the Rosko family is quietly struggling to keep up appearances while hiding their sins, small and large, from one another. Miri (Ronit Elkabetz) teaches preschool and is having an affair; her husband Gidi (gruff Tzahi Grad), a crop-dusting pilot on the moshav, isn’t letting on that he’s been grounded and has been whiling away his days getting stoned. And their late-blooming son Yoni is practicing for his upcoming bar mitzvah, while pacifying the class bullies by selling them completed homework assignments behind the teachers’ backs. The Rosko household, fragile already, is thrown into disarray by the unexpected return of older son Tomer (Michael Moshonov, Lebanon), an autistic boy whose institution has suddenly closed. As family pressures mount, past secrets emerge, and Yoni’s Torah portion—relating the story of Noah and the flood—comes to take on multiple meanings, not only in the two brothers’ lives but for the whole family and their extended community: as the promise of either salvation or utter inundation. In addition to stunning imagery and technical craftsmanship, Mabul is anchored by tour-deforce performances, especially from Moshonov (seen at SFJFF in Tehilim and Bena) and young Yoav Rotman as Yoni. —Peter L. Stein

DIRECTOR Guy Nattiv in person in San Francisco. Principal cast members invited.

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