Hadvarim Shameahorei Hashemesh (Things Behind the Sun)
Screenplay and Direction: Yuval Shafferman
Cast: Assi dayan, sandra sade, Tess Hashiloni, Zohar Shtrauss
Langauge: Hebrew
Running Time: 110 mins

This is a Film purely about relationships. Itzhak is the head of a very dysfunctional family. His own father is in coma and is in the hospital but he has never visited him for the past ten years. He has two daughters and a son. The elder daughter has left the family some time ago, and she has just returned home. She is a lesbian and no one in the family knows it. The younger daughter is Didush, she is 10 year old and nobody even seem to notice that she is there. The dysfunctionality of the family is nicely brought out in a scene where Itzhak and his wife are at the verge of a major fight. They are decent enough to know that they should not talk in front of Didush. They ask her to leave saying it is time to bed. Didush says she does not want to sleep yet. Then they try to get around the problem by speaking in English, only for Didush to say something in English and leave at the end of it. The parents did not even know that their own kid speaks English.

Didush's brother Zohar is the only guy who seems to talk or even share something with her. He is a philosophical junkie who stays home mostly despite being thirty. He does drugs but nobody seems to care. His part time job is pizza delivery. One of his colleagues wants to look for a better job and begins to talk about some crazy business ideas he has. Zohar asks him this question, "why do birds migrate? Would they migrate if they knew that their destination is not better than where they are starting from?, he continues, "what makes you think that this new business venture of yours would make you happy?". His friend says he would take a chance. We realize what Zohar's problem is. He is averse to change. He wont change his job, he won't even move out from his dad's place. He is just not comfortable enough to do it even though he knows that his mom and dad are not happy anymore with his staying with them.

Their mother is a suppressed artist. She is a painter who had given up her ambition all her life(i.e. till now) first for her husband, then for her kids. She has begun to paint again now, although nudes, that too of her own self and of her other family members. She seems to know exactly what each one of her family is about, even though they seem to be living like strangers under the same roof. There is a secret in the family of why Itzhak has not visited his father in the hospital for ten years. There is a running gag in the family where they all keep saying that the grandpa was the only guy who wanted Didush when she was born. Was Didush child of the grandpa? I couldn't figure that out even though I was curious. Didush is curious too about her grandpa. She wants to see him before he dies but none would take her. Finally she dares and goes and sees the grandpa. He is an invalid and has not spoken a word or seemed to hear one, for years. She sits by him for sometime and then leaves.

The next day Itzhak walks in, he has come to make up with his father. It pains him to see his father not being attended to properly. He says the same to the oldman. The old man suddenly comes alive and holds his son's hand. The emotion in the oldman is so strong that he couldn't handle it. He dies. Itzhak is shocked. Great sorrow engulfs him and he wants to share his grief with someone. He calls his wife but she wouldn't pick up, she is busy at her first show. He calls Didush and tells her that if her mother calls home, Didush should ask her to call back, he needs to talk. Didush agrees to tell her. Then he calls his son but Zohar doesn't want to speak to him either. His elder daughter cuts the call. Then he calls home again and Didush picks the phone.

Itzhak: Didush!
Didush: Dad, mom has not called yet!
Itzhak: Didush, how is your school.
Didush: I didn't go to school today dad.
Itzhak: No, I mean, how is school?

Didush is a smart girl, she understands that her dad needs someone to talk to. So she begins the small talk. When her elder sister asks her if she is not coming to the show of their mother, Didush says in hushed tone that she has an ache in the stomach and she would stay back home. We know that she is doing it for her father. She talks about banal things at her school to her father and after a while she puts the phone down and runs to the hospital. Itzhak sees Didush and hugs her and cries like a baby. I cried with him too, it was a deeply emotional moment.

During my years of living in US, it always bothered me that I have not been able to spend enough time with my parents who are back in India. I was always worried that it would be too late before I find some time for myself and for my parents. That was one of the strongest reasons why I moved back to India and so I could personally relate to and understand Itzhak's pain. Yuval Shafferman, who directed this film is an emerging young director in Israel and this is his debut feature. His short film 'Routine', shot while he was a student at Tel Aviv University has won the prestigious 'Best Student Film' award at the Manhattan short Film Festival and with it $250,000 in the year 2003. 'Things behind the sun' looked like the work of a veteran and that is saying a lot about its maker. I can only wait for his next Film.

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