The Ballad of the Weeping Spring
Starring: Uri Gavriel, Dudu Tassa, Nir Levy, Adar Gold
Director: Benny Toraty
Rating: 3/5
The UK Jewish Film Festival is well underway and The Ballad of the Weeping Spring is one of the films that is on the programme this week.
Twenty years after a car accident for which he was held responsible, Yosef Tawila (Gavriel) is running a bar in northern Israel. The son of Avram, Yosef’s band mate, best friend, and another survivor from the crash, arrives with the news that his father is dying.
He brings the sheet music for 'The Weeping Springtime Symphony,' a piece Yosef and Avram worked on together but never played.
Yosef, once the leader of this band, decides to reunite his old musician buddies to grant his dying friend’s final wish - and perhaps to heal his own tortured soul.
It is always great when you see music take centre stage in a movie, and that is exactly what happens in The Ballad of the Weeping Spring; the music is one of the most engrossing elements of this film.
This touching drama tackles themes of redemption and camaraderie and looking back at the past. Moreover, while there are some quite touching and moving moments throughout, director Benny Toraty resists overplaying the sentiment.
It is a great central performance from Uri Gavriel as Tawila is a character with the weight of the world on his shoulders; he is a man who is riddled with guilt and has turned away from music because of it.
Gavriel plays this part with plenty of weight and gravitas and he really is the character that does drive the story and the film forward.
Tortay has given the film an almost Western feel to it: which is something that works incredibly well.
However, it is the music in this film that really is the most captivating element; through the music, the film looks at generation gaps as well as tradition vs. moving modernisation.
The Ballad of the Weeping Spring is a movie that has already played very well on the festival circuit so far this year, and is set to be another crowd pleaser at the UK Jewish Film Festival.
The UK Jewish Film Festival runs 30th October - 17th November.