Aliens, Exorcism and 'Baalei Teshuva': Where Did the Strangest Israeli Film of the Year Come From?
'My One and Only', the debut film by David Tauber, mixes romantic comedy, supernatural horror, alien invasion, exorcism, and a Talmudic midrash about fate, choice, and a match made in heaven. Not all the ingredients manage to connect, and at times it seems the film is too loaded with ideas - but its wild freedom and the unusual voice it brings make it one of the most refreshing surprises of the year.
The new Israeli film, 'My One and Only', caught me by complete surprise. I had not heard about it until its release this week - this despite the fact that it was shown at the Jerusalem Film Festival last year, not as part of the Israeli competition, and was also nominated for an Ophir Award for Best Editing. Somehow it flew under my radar, and had I not been assigned to write about it, it would likely have remained there.
I write these things not because it is a local masterpiece, far from it, but because it seems to me that such a thing has not yet been seen in Israeli cinema. A strange story taking place among a community of 'baalei teshuva' (penitents), it turns to the Talmud as a source of inspiration, deals with exorcism, and even throws in an alien invasion. Do with that what you will. And I forgot the main thing: it is also a romantic comedy.
Furthermore: since 'Ushpizin' (2004) by Gidi Dar and Shuli Rand, I do not recall another film whose commercial screenings did not take place on Shabbat. 'My One and Only' is shown in cinemas until the onset of Shabbat and after its conclusion. I assume there will be those whom this decision, alongside the support of the Samaria Foundation for the film, will deter from it even before watching it. But despite these understandable reservations, it seems to me that it is worth giving this film a chance. The film's merits justify it.
This is the debut film of director-screenwriter David Tauber, a graduate of 'Ma'ale', and the voice he projects is certainly exceptional in the context of contemporary Israeli cinema dealing with the world of religion and Judaism. On one hand, the cinema of Dar and Rand that brings the folkloric-legendary dimension (see 'Ushpizin' and soon the wonderful 'Badchan'), on the other hand, the spiritual-metaphysical cinema of Avishai Sivan ('The Wanderer', 'Tikkun'). Tauber's film is in between, with scenes that seem as if they were taken from a supernatural horror film, and others that, like the camera movement (of the excellent Yosef Shalest), wander between the worlds of body and soul. It is, in other words, a film that is like a dish rich in ingredients whose flavors change with every bite.
It starts like a 'baalei teshuva' version of the classic 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers'. Shira (Talia Bartfeld), a young 'baalat teshuva' who has just given birth, turns to the Rabbanit (Nuvit Sitbon) with a strange claim: her husband, Noam (Nadav Antman Ron), is not the man she married, but a double. On the outside he looks like her husband, but on the inside - there is something else there. At the same time, we follow the story of Gaia (Inbal Raz), a young woman spending time at a tasting dinner in an event hall ahead of her marriage to Idan (Yoel Rozenkier). Watching them from the side is a young waitress named Hali (Ella Armoni) who lives with her demented mother. In a truly unexpected moment, two of the characters will switch places in what looks like a kosher version of the fluid identities in Lynch's 'Mulholland Drive'.
The film allows itself to split hairs around the distinction between fate and choice, and does so in a unique cinematic language. It is clear that the story about the replaced husband is not meant to be taken literally here. 'My One and Only' may start as a film centered on a seemingly supernatural story, but it seeks to deal with a female experience of oppression and routine. What happens actually when a woman begins to wonder about fate and choice in her life? These things are not relevant only to Shira, but also to the Rabbanit who is herself a 'baalat teshuva' married to a Rabbi (Shimon Mimran) whom no one really comes to hear his lessons in the synagogue.
On the other hand, while I am writing these things, it is hard for me not to feel reservations about them. I watched Tauber's film only once, during which I enjoyed many things in it. But in hindsight, it seems to me that the load of its ingredients is also its undoing. The script simply contains so many twists and subplots that their accumulation leaves them undeveloped. One should appreciate Tauber's choice not to maintain one linear axis - something that many Israeli films for some reason insist on - but it often creates a feeling of a conceptual jumble rather than a justified associative structure of the Lynchian type.
'My One and Only' leads Israeli cinema, and in particular that which deals with Judaism, in refreshing and unexpected directions. I love the freedom that Tauber took for himself in this film, even if it suffers from overload. I love the voice that comes from places that are not in the center of the Israeli cinematic discourse, a voice that speaks in its own language. I love the meeting with a film that I was not aware of its existence at all and now it is important that you also know about it.
