| Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 18, 2011

| Original Score: A | Sep 7, 2011

You could say this film is at once a secular fable on a religious dilemma and an almost religious parable about an all-too-human tragedy.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 5, 2010

Helped by gorgeous photography and sound design, it's a work of considerable force that bears comparison with Terence Davies's early films.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 5, 2010

This approach - together with Volach's tenderness in describing Menahem's sense of wonder - makes the film's middle scenes beguiling.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 5, 2010

All three actors are excellent.

| Jan 5, 2010

A compelling, saddening film.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 5, 2010

Brilliantly acted, shot with rare skill and has the force of a Biblical parable without losing its essential affection towards its characters, even Abraham. Do not miss it.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Jan 5, 2010

My Father My Lord may seem deceptively slight on plot but it's a superbly acted, beautifully shot and emotionally devastating drama.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 5, 2010

Overemphasizes the parents' rigidities in detailed portrait of Ultra-Orthodox, but this family is three-dimensionally human through beautiful hand-held cinematography.

| Original Score: 6/10 | Apr 20, 2009

[An] assured, amazing 72-minute debut Israeli film, in which every delicate shot counts for the greater emotional impact.

| Dec 5, 2008

An impressive debut by 37-year-old Israeli writer-director David Volach, "My Father My Lord" squeezes more humanity into 72 minutes than most Hollywood movies can muster in two hours or more.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Oct 3, 2008

David Volach's understated condemnation of religious extremism makes its points in lethally solemn tones, with neither caricature nor ridicule.

| Original Score: B | Oct 2, 2008

Volach doesn't waste a word or action in his spare, finely crafted screenplay.

| Aug 1, 2008

[Director David] Volach makes every moment count by holding tight close-ups on the faces of his extraordinarily tender, expressive cast, framing them with an elegant beauty.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jul 24, 2008

It's an affecting portrait of family life that gives way to a profound depiction of faith shaken to its roots.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jul 11, 2008

My Father My Lord is an impressive first feature that stands out for its emotional qualities, its ambition and its brevity. In this day of endless epics, this 73-minute Israeli film manages to do a lot with very little time.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 11, 2008

A surefooted and frequently touching revisionist retelling of the Abrahamic narrative that, while hardly revolutionary, is certainly evocative and provocative.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 11, 2008

A cry of anguish not against Judaism itself but against fundamentalist adherence to the letter rather than the spirit of living well by doing good.

Full Review | Jul 10, 2008

David Volach has created a drama that, in retrospect, feels positively biblical.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jun 27, 2008