Rama Burshtein made her feature debut last year with Fill the Void, which has spent much of the past year on the festival circuit. The film has picked up a slew of awards and nominations, including winning the Volpi Cup in Venice for Best Actress for the young Hadas Yaron for her leading performance.
Sony Pictures Classics acquired Fill the Void’s US distribution rights late last year, and now they’ve announced that they’ll be releasing the film in the States in May this year.
“Fill The Void tells the story of an Orthodox Hassidic family from Tel Aviv.
Eighteen-year-old Shira is the youngest daughter of the family. She is about to be married off to a promising young man of the same age and background. It is a dream-come-true, and Shira feels prepared and excited.
On Purim, her twenty-eight-year-old sister, Esther, dies while giving birth to her first child. The pain and grief that overwhelm the family postpone Shira’s promised match.
Everything changes when an offer is proposed to match Yochay – the late Esther’s husband – to a widow from Belgium. Yochay feels it’s too early, although he realizes that sooner or later he must seriously consider getting married again.
When the girls’ mother finds out that Yochay may leave the country with her only grandchild, she proposes a match between Shira and the widower. Shira will have to choose between her heart’s wish and her family duty.”
The film sounds like a powerful family drama, and I’m hoping it will see a release on our shores too, later this year.
Yaron makes her leading debut here, starring alongside Yiftach Klein, Irit Sheleg, and Chaim Sharir.
Burshtein is also making her debut with Fill the Void, directing from her own script.
Fill the Void will be released in the US on 24th May. Sony Classics will likely begin by opening it in select theatres to begin with that day, before opening it wider across the country in successive weeks – a model that has been very successful for them in the past.
