Danielle Solzman
The Other Story is grounded through a father-daughter relationship but also touches on the struggles between Ultra-Orthodox Judaism and secular lifestyles.
There are two major plots going in The Other Story. One is the relationship between Anat Abadi (Joy Rieger) and Shachar Elkayam (Nathan Goshen). The other deals with patients of Dr. Shlomo Abadi (Sasson Gabai), Rami (Maayan Bloom) and Sari (Avigail Harari). While Shlomo brings in his son, Yonatan (Yuval Segal), to help these two, it somehow enables Yonatan to become closer with his daughter. Anat and Sari are rebels in their own way. Where Anat has found herself becoming more religious, Sari is driven further away from Judaism.
At the start of the film. Tali (Maya Dagan) didn’t have the best relationship with her daughter, Anat. Neither did her ex-husband, Yonatan. He escaped a damaging scandal to be there for his daughter but only after Shlomo buys a plane ticket. Their relationship hasn’t been the best but he wants to be there for her now. Sure, he’s going to manipulate her so that Tali wins but love can be strange. None of them are happy that she followed her boyfriend Shachar into the Ultra-Orthodox Judaism lifestyle. They’ll do anything if it meets getting her to forget that lifestyle.
While Anat rebels against her parents by becoming religious, it’s interesting to see how her parents react to these decisions. How far are they willing to go to stop her marriage to Shachar? Surely, there are similar stories of “hazara betshuva” (returning to the faith) that can be explored. We can look at present-day Israel and see the struggle between two different worldviews–a different story.
Based on a true story, The Other Story will certainly shine a lot on these two different worldviews–Ultra-Orthodox Judaism and the secular world.
DIRECTOR: Avi Nesher
SCREENWRITER: Avi Nesher and Noam Shpancer
CAST: Sasson Gabai, Joy Rieger, Yuval Segal, Maya Dagan, Nathan Goshen, Maayan Bloom, Avigail Harari
