While Burshtein does offer up that sense of reverence and communal commitment, she doesn't idealize the community and isn't afraid to show the more business aspects of Purim.

| Original Score: 3.5/4.0 | Sep 7, 2020

Steeped in tradition, religion and ritual, Fill The Void fills a void in cinema with warmth and insight into the mysteries of love and life.

| Nov 27, 2019

Almost all of the film's characters are so well-rounded, and their personal and moral nagging so well-defined, that every single shot feels full of life and vitality. Most commendable of all, Burshtein treats her subject with delicacy.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 6, 2019

For better or worse, Burshtein elides a specific critique of the religious ideology that has forced Shira into marriage in the first place.

| Dec 17, 2018

Fill the Void is an astonishing film, a masterful piece of art that feels like the work of an established veteran but is instead the debut of a woman who, like the married women in her film, sees her family as the center of her life.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Nov 21, 2018

[Rama] Burshtein oppressively captures the claustrophobia of a close-knit community where every daily act - from opening a door to eating - is a religious ritual.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 6, 2017

Burhstein's slow-paced, carefully edited work illuminates concepts of filial piety, female agency, and patriarchy.

| Oct 5, 2016

It's not a great movie, but it's a humane and touching one.

| Feb 28, 2016

Emotional issues an an insular world

| May 23, 2014

A man and a woman, alone, on a path at night, forbidden to touch, speak, confront, describe passion: the man moves closer. That's all. The smallest of moves, infinitesimal motion. The world tilts on its axis.

| Apr 9, 2014

...an entertaining yet uneven debut from a promising new filmmaker...

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Feb 28, 2014

As opposed to the bleak view of sexual subjugation in Kadosh, Amos Gitai's 1999 film about Hasidic marriage, Fill the Void sees Burshtein fortrightly and wittily asserting that this is how her community lives.

| Feb 6, 2014

A rare and illuminating glimpse of contemporary Hasidic life against the backdrop of ritual, Purim, marriage, and death.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 4, 2014

Few films in recent memory better capture the heartbreak of loss, the agony of indecision or the burden of familial duty.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 19, 2013

An intelligent and moving examination of the possibilities of personal freedom within the strict confines of religion and tradition.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 16, 2013

There is perhaps something ultimately undeveloped about it, but the film is a well acted, well presented piece of work.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 12, 2013

Fill the Void is as well-versed in the rules of matchmaking as a Jane Austen novel, and it bends them as artfully as wicker.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 12, 2013

Its last five minutes are so extraordinarily enigmatic, you're certain the subject of innocence, guilt and attraction has been addressed on a deep level.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 12, 2013

A fascinating and emotionally gripping drama with a sharply written, understated script and a pair of terrific performances from Hadas Yaron and Yiftach Klein.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 12, 2013

A nuanced kitchen-sink depiction of an Israeli Hassidic community which zeroes in on the dilemma of an 18-year-old girl named Shira.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 12, 2013