Zion and His Brother

You don’t have to look far for complex and intense stories of Jewish brothers: Cain and Abel, the Warner Brothers, or maybe your own rivalrous siblings. Eran Merav’s knockout first feature offers a fresh, razor-sharp perspective on the loving and sometimes fraught relationship between brothers. Set in a working-class suburb of Haifa, this gritty drama (which premiered to critical acclaim this year at Sundance) sports a stellar cast including Ronit Elkabetz as the brothers’ sexy mom, who has hitched her hopes for a better life on auto shop owner Eli (Tzahi Grad). Fourteen-year-old Zion (Reuven Badalov), a gentle soul, and his older brother Meir (Ofer Hayun), an angry young man with more than one chip on his shoulder, are thick as thieves—that is, when they’re not fighting. When rough play leads to a tragic accident involving a neighborhood Ethiopian boy, the brothers react differently and are challenged by thorny questions of loyalty and morality. The pressure of keeping a secret, coupled with Meir’s clashes with their mother’s boyfriend, stretch the bonds of fraternal allegiance almost to the breaking point. Merav’s coming-of-age tale, redolent with nascent testoterone, is an artful vehicle for an exceptionally well told, universal story and for the considerable talents of his young actors. –Nancy K. Fishman