A bar mitzvah boy's big moment becomes his family's war zone.
When thirteen year old Aharon,is selected for the great honor of carrying the big Torah book around the neighborhood in 'Simchat Torah' celebrations, he feels life is finally about to change for the better. But his selection causes age-old tensions between his parents to surface, and the symbolic happy ritual becomes a life-threatening struggle.
Acting
Agam Ozalvo's crushing performance as a boy drowning in adult expectations.
Direction
Lee Gilat transforms a neighborhood walk into claustrophobic psychological horror.
Writing
Every family argument feels excavated from real buried resentments.
Director
Lee Gilat
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Simchat Torah's hakafot ceremony traditionally celebrates completion of the Torah reading cycle; the film weaponizes this joy into a pressure cooker of Mizrahi Jewish family dynamics rarely seen on screen.
Lior Ashkenazi, one of Israel's most celebrated actors, reportedly took this role specifically because it subverted his typical charming leading-man persona—Bezalel is monstrous precisely because he believes he's righteous.
IL
