Fill the Void
Sony Pictures Classics | Release Date: May 24, 2013 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
79
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 23 Critic Reviews
Positive:
18
Mixed:
5
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
The New York TimesA.O. ScottMay 23, 2013
What the film makes clear, with unfailing sensitivity and wry humor, is that for Shira and her family the ordinary arrangements of living are freighted with moral and spiritual significance. Read full review
100
Village VoiceDiana ClarkeMay 21, 2013
Burshtein's lush visual sensibility, and the subtle performances of the excellent cast, create an aching portrayal of longing and interdependence that transcends the boundaries of the family's small world. Read full review
91
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerMay 31, 2013
Implicit in this film is a simple truth: The sheer force of artistry has the power to convert outsiders into insiders. I left Fill the Void feeling privileged, however briefly, to have been brought into this world. Read full review
91
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd May 22, 2013
Burshtein shoots in extreme shallow focus, framing her actors against a sometimes-blinding blanket of white fuzz. It’s a decision that, coupled with Yitzhak Azulay’s stirring, chant-driven score, lends each conversation a near religious aura. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranMay 23, 2013
A transfixing, emotionally complex Israeli drama. Read full review
88
Boston GlobePeter KeoughJun 21, 2013
Burshtein has achieved a gripping film without victims or villains, an ambiguous tragedy drawing on universal themes of love and loss, self-sacrifice and self-preservation. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesNell MinowJun 20, 2013
A sympathetic, lay­­ered portrayal, rich with detail, that earns its more complex and resonant conclusion. Read full review
88
Washington PostStephanie MerryJun 14, 2013
The movie confounds at times with its aversion to clearly explaining each relationship and ritual, but ultimately that makes each realization seem more like a new discovery. Read full review
88
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie RickeyJun 14, 2013
Burshtein keeps the camera tight on the faces of her actors in a way that succeeds at making visible the invisible heat between the characters. The film's chaste eroticism and the community's deep respect for Shira's emotional and spiritual growth keep the audience in thrall. Read full review
85
NPRElla TaylorMay 23, 2013
Burshtein refuses to engage with the culture wars that flare fiercely between secular and religious types in Israel; in fact she's trying to avoid types of any kind, which may be why secular audiences and critics have embraced her rapturous depiction of a community living its life, more separate from than at odds with the society beyond. Read full review
80
The TelegraphRobbie CollinDec 12, 2013
Fill the Void is a real collector’s item: a film in which the forces of religion and tradition are shown to be working together, however haltingly and imperfectly, for the good. Read full review
80
Time OutJoshua RothkopfMay 21, 2013
The film isn’t exactly rousing in its conclusion, but it’s always respectful: a serious ethical inquiry into matters of women’s choice, both imposed and seized upon. Check it out. Read full review
75
McClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreJun 26, 2013
Fill the Void’s greatest virtue is in the ways her characters take us beyond stereotypes even as she herself questions the value system of a culture that is so focused on religion, marriage and procreation that it holds few attractions to those not born into it. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comSusan WloszczynaJun 14, 2013
Its ending leaves the door open for interpretation and post-viewing discussion — just as the best sort of movie-going experiences often do. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsJun 13, 2013
An elegant miniature, Rama Burshtein's Fill the Void labors under a narrative inevitability, but it's artful work nonetheless. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineAndrew SchenkerMay 17, 2013
The film unfolds in unhurried dramatic terms that come to take on an almost fatalistic force. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenJul 17, 2013
Fill the Void is almost more like an ethnographic film than a fictional narrative in regard to our rare observational perspective. Yet Shira also shares attitudes in common with Jane Austen heroines, whose worlds are dominated by their marital prospects and domestic matters. Read full review
65
Film.comJordan HoffmanMay 27, 2013
Fill the Void is, in the worst sense of the word, a “women’s picture,” in which people wring their hands and worry, wail and weep over marriage and maintaining the status quo. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawDec 12, 2013
The story unfolds intriguingly within an intimate, almost claustrophobic environment. There is perhaps something ultimately undeveloped about it, but the film is a well acted, well presented piece of work. Read full review
60
Total FilmKevin HarleyDec 9, 2013
The resulting pickle may seem alien to many, but Yaron’s navigation of Shira’s struggles make it tangible. Read full review
60
EmpireAngie ErrigoDec 9, 2013
Like Saudi Arabia's "Wadjda," Burshtein's film is a groundbreaking first - the first Israeli film to be directed by a woman - and although it lacks a little of the emotional heft of Haifaa al-Mansour's work, it's a well acted and delicately told tale. Read full review
50
New York PostFarran Smith NehmeMay 23, 2013
Trouble is, while the social milieu is nicely realized, other parts of the drama are not. Too often Burshtein cuts off a scene prematurely, darting away just as the crucial moment of emotion or confrontation appears. Read full review
42
The PlaylistOliver LytteltonMay 21, 2013
Burshtein has devoted most of the last 20 years teaching and making film in that world, but here makes her international feature debut with a curious comedy-drama that has its strengths, but ultimately proves somewhat disappointing. Read full review
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