Hemda, a new film by Shemi Zarhin

 I recently had the opportunity to view the new Israeli feature film, Hemda by Shemi Zarhin. The film stars two wonderful veteran actors of Israeli stage and screen – Sasson Gabai and Assi Levi, who were paired together also in Shemi Zarhin’s Aviva My Love (2006).  Zarhin, whose earlier films include Passover Fever (1995) and Dangerous Acts (1998), is one of the great Israeli filmmakers of humanistic narrative films about family issues. 

Hemda is an extraordinary film about family, loyalty, relationships and love and includes both comic and tragic elements.

 The film opens with Sassi and Effi going together to the doctor. Ever since Sassi’s major prostrate surgery about two years earlier, he has a problem with sexual dysfunction.  Effi is Sassi's second wife and there seems to be a major age difference between them.  Sassi has two grown children with his first wife, one of whom is a son living abroad, having run away from his debts. 

 Sassi and Effi are each working tirelessly to pay back those debts. She is a watsu water therapist and, in the evenings, a music teacher.  He drives a truck around the Galilee, emptying enormous recycling bins. Things become complicated when two young men enter the picture -- Sassi’s grandson arrives from Brussels, and David, a previous student of Effi’s, shows up needing water therapy.

 In addition to visually seeing the fields and communities of the Galilee, we can also feel its diversity as there is a fair amount of Arabic language and Arab characters throughout.

This is a complex story, portraying compelling and quirky characters, who we care about and worry about.