The Day After I'm Gone

Widowed Tel Aviv veterinarian Yoram (Menashe Noy), a taciturn type whose communication skills are much less developed than his surgical abilities, has always put work above all, especially so in the wake of his wife's death. When his 17-year-old daughter Roni (Zohar Meidan, very impressive) goes missing for two days and then blithely shows up as if nothing is wrong, Yoram is unable - and, one realizes, unwilling - to delve too deeply into her disappearance. Two days later, Roni attempts suicide by overdose. Realizing that his daughter is in desperate need of her father, Yoram attempts to bridge the gulf between them by taking her to visit relatives - that act, in itself, being symptomatic of his inability to communicate with Roni one-on-one - but perhaps the time for rapprochement has past. Very well acted and directed, Nimrod Eldar's debut drama is an intimate chamber piece about familial disintegration and emotional impoverishment. What is so impressive here is Eldar's understanding of the lived psychology of loss and trauma at both the personal and - this being Israel - national level. Understated, wholly convincing, and very moving, the film "confirms Eldar as a promising talent with a subtle understanding of behaviour and emotions." - Allan Hunter, Screen. [VIFF 2019]