Review by John Delia
There shouldn’t be a dry eye in the theater from the heartfelt movie The Farewell Party set in an Israeli retirement home. Courageous acting, script and directing, the touching dark comedy takes a look at old age with story characters nearing their passing. If you see one foreign film this year and don’t mind shedding a few tears, rush to see The Farewell Party.
Retired inventor Yehezkel (Ze’ev Revah) and his wife Levana (Levana Finkelshtein) are living the quiet life at the Achvat Vatrim Retirement Home in Jerusalem. They have a circle of friends they care about and commiserate with daily. One such couple is Yana (Aliza Rozen) and Max (Samuel Wolf) their best friends who have been living at the same facility for several years. Max has taken a turn for the worse and doctors at the medical center of the retirement home have been keeping him alive. He’s in constant pain and Yana feels helpless in his hour of need.
Yehezkel comes to visit Max in his hospital room and the dying man tells him he can’t take the pain anymore and wants to die. He asks Yehezkel if he can help him to leave the life of agony. Yana cannot get the doctors to do anything so she pursues Yehezkel to find a way. A newly retired Dr. Mier Daniel (Ilan Dar) comes to live at the facility and Yehezkel finds out that he’s in favor of assisted suicide. The two along with Yana and a friend Rafi (Rafael Tabor) look into the possibility of using either the Kevorkian or Nitschke self-assisted suicide methods if Yehezkel can build the device.
What happens next is a sympathetic and daring film about friendship and the use a new killing machine. Directors and screenwrtiters Tal Granit and Sharon Maymon keep the serious subject as light hearted as possible considering the subject matter. They achieve a measure of laughter putting their characters in some tight situations and using scripted faux pas as added light comedy. But the solemnity of the film never gets overlooked as Granit and Maymon infuse the heartbreaking result of dying loved ones
At the center of the film Ze’ev Revah’s character Yehezkel carries the most weight. Superbly acted, his character becomes the all-embracing obligatory missionary of death. He’s the inventor of the machine that will end the lives of the severely ill that want to die with dignity. He throws himself into the project to help his best friend, not knowing that it will lead to others who find themselves in the same situation. When he has to make a staggering decision however, his choice becomes the most difficult one in his life.
The Farewell Party has not been rated by the MPAA but contains brief nudity, drug use, smoking and scenes of fiction assisted suicide. The film plays out in Hebrew with English Subtitles. Be cautious when deciding to allow immature children see the film as it does have scenes that are inappropriate for adolescents.
FINAL ANALYSIS: A very heartfelt story with excellent acting and direction. (A)
Additional Film Information:
Cast: Ze’ev Revah, Levana Finkelshtein, Rafael Tabor, Ilan Dar, and Aliza Rozen, Yosef Carmon, Hilla Sarjon, Ruth Geller
Writer-Directors: Tal Granit, Sharon Maymon,
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Foreign in Hebrew with English Subtitles
MPAA Rating: Not Rated contains brief nudity, smoking, drug use
Running Time: 1 hr 35 min
Release Date: June 26, 2015
Distributed by: Samuel Goldwyn Films
(In addition to other locations around the country, The Farewell Party opens this Friday, June 26th, at the Miami Dade College Tower Theater in Miami, Florida and the Cinema Paradiso in Hollywood, Florida).