REVIEW: ‘Past Life’ follows a young woman searching for her father’s past
Director Avi Nesher’s new film, Past Life, is an enthralling drama that surrounds one family’s search for the truth after the horrors of World War II. The film serves as a deep rumination on how a family’s past remains vital to the events of the present and future.
Joy Rieger plays Sephi Milch, a young woman who is an aspiring singer and composer in Israel. She is frequently at odds with her revolution-minded sister, Nana (Nelly Tagar), but they still love each other like only sisters can.
The two are faced with many difficult questions, many of them centered on their father, Baruch (Doron Tavory). Allegations and secrets have surfaced about what happened to Baruch during and after the Holocaust in Poland. The sisters soon realize that their father, a strict disciplinarian when they were growing up, may not be telling the full truth on how he survived the war.
As Sephi and Nana mine their family’s painful history, Nesher has the drama go back and forth between a fine character study of Sephi and her classical music aspirations, and a whodunit thriller with unexpected revelations along the way. Nesher doesn’t completely achieve all of his goals with the story, especially with a relatively short running time, but he is able to create a stirring, moving film about the need to confront one’s past.
The performances are excellent, especially from Rieger and Tavory. The wedge between this father and daughter comes in the form of Polish composer Thomas Zielinski (Rafael Stachowiak), a man who seems to know about Baruch’s past and also holds the key to Sephi’s orchestral future. Baruch is uncomfortable with how close Sephi and Thomas are getting, but are his reservations out of self-preservation or fatherly duties?
There’s enough twists and turns in Past Life that the audience will be kept guessing until the end. However, it’s better to approach the film less as a thriller with a fireworks ending and more as an introspective journey into one family’s painful past and how they might survive and thrive in the future. The revelations are there — and shocking — but the real arc of the story can be found in Sephi’s music and her need to simultaneously understand her family’s history and make her own path into the future.
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Past Life (2017), written and directed by Avi Nesher, stars Joy Rieger, Nelly Tagar, Evgenia Dodina, Katarzyna Gniewkowska, Rafael Stachowiak and Doron Tavory. Running time: 110 minutes. Rating: 
