I went to see this movie having being told it was a comedy, and it is - until it takes an inevitable and disturbing turn. It's tragi-comedy in the purest, old-Greek sense, where the humour and the dread fuel each other. The star of the film is Lior Ashkenazi, a handsome, charismatic actor who plays Zaza as a complex character - in turn sexy and easy to root for, then weak and pitiable. The sex scene the film is famed for isn't particularly sexy, it is, instead horribly intimate - it's like a scene from your own bed, and the familiarity of it is shocking in a great way. Plus, the lack of fuss concerning nudity is marvellous - perhaps we do live in a civilized, modern world after all? The ending of the film is also disturbing, and in the end the movie isn't easy to take. I wouldn't want it any other way, but it makes repeat viewings difficult.

"Late Marriage (Hatuna Meuheret)" makes "Monsoon Wedding" seem like a commercial Hollywood flick in comparison in dealing with a similar theme -- families imposing traditional marriage on an adult son in today's world.

This film is an intense and heartbreaking examination of a Georgian Russian immigrant family pushing tradition on an older son in very modern Israel. Through a very gradual unveiling as we learn more and more about each member of the family and relationships, every character is strongly individually wrought, flaws and all, complex sympathies and all.

The blunt scenes demonstrating traditional relationships are paralleled with extremely frank contemporary ones.

I thought at first that the lack of a soundtrack virtually up until the closing scene was due to writer/director Dover Koshashvili's obvious minuscule budget. Instead the closing band music punctuates a bittersweet, ironic tension-builder as the audience waits anxiously to see how the central figure of Zaza/Dooby resolved his unresolvable philosophical, familial and romantic dilemmas amidst very competitive, strong-willed women.

The sub-titles are sub-par; it's awkward, for example, to translate "Shalom" as peace be with you as it's really more just colloquial hello.

(originally written 5/24/2002)

Late Marriage is one of the best Israeli films in many years. It is to the credit of director Dover Kashashivili to translate it to the screen into one of the frankest depiction of a love affair seen in recent memory. The director avoids the clichés of other films that pretend to show a sexual relationship between two lovers in a a film. He doesn't leave anything to our imagination as the characters of this story clearly show us.

The two main actors, Lior Ashkenazi, Zaza, and Ronit Elkabetz, the Judith of the story, are mature individuals who obviously feel a passionate love for one another. They're powerless against the wishes of Zaza's family who are hell bent into separating them. Never mind that is very obvious how both feel about each other. She's an older divorcée who obviously will be the ruin of the scholarly Zaza.

Both Mr. Ashkenazy and Ms. Elkabetz could give acting lessons to our repressed so-called movie stars. Their passion is on the surface for us to see and feel. What we really enjoyed was the way these two actors act against each other in what could have been very embarrassing scenes. They pulled it off with panache.

The ensemble cast is very good, but of course, they don't come close to the stars who take the film and run away with it. Let's hope we can see more of them in other Israeli films.

Mazel tov!