From the Hebrew and Arabic meaning purity or the concept of cleanliness, TAHARA is the wryly ironic title of Olivia Peace’s teen coming of age piece.
The pic starts with teens at a funeral for one of their peers, a suicide, a solemn occasion for most, but because it’s a ceremony where she is not the centre of attention, it’s a chore and a bore for Hannah Rosen, the vapid, vape toking, vain and venal high schooler with her sexual sights set on the dishy Tristan.
During grief counselling sessions, the insensitive Hannah insists the support of her forever friend, Carrie, into kissing exercises, to practice her smooching technique so she is match ready for a pash with Tristan
Hannah and Carrie are chalk and cheese, yet are besties. Hannah is vacuous, Carrie studious, Hannah is self centred, Carrie is self aware. Hannah is clueless that Carrie has a crush on her and is callow to cruel about the depth of their friendship.
However, Hannah’s thoughtlessness does not invite vindictiveness in Carrie, instead she grows from it, an education that frees her from the friendship without entirely jettisoning it.
Screenwriter Jess Ziedman and director Olivia Peace deliver a film that is poignant and authentic, tempering the toxic and manipulative by turning it into a revelation and empowering Carrie with a positive charge into her future.
The two lead performances are excellent. As the unfiltered, garrulous Hannah, Rachel Sennot fully realises her character’s sense of unearned superiority. You want to slap her down or slap some sense into her but you cant tear your eyes away once you slap eyes on her.
Madeline Grey DeFreece is superbly contrasting as the less showy but nevertheless steely scene stealing Carrie. She is actually the beating heart of this story, the significant other to the superficial Hannah, the depth compared to the shallows.
Imaginative use of claymation to illustrate Carrie’s innermost dreams and desires is an added pleasure to the rich and unobtrusive pallet that TAHARA presents.
Forgiveness is the focus of the feature film TIGER WITHIN.
Margot Josefsohn stars as Casey, a tearaway teenager travelling from the high low Ohio home of her mother’s, an abode she shares with a boyfriend who is continually on Casey’s case, to Los Angeles where her father has relocated with a new family.
A frosty reunion from her father’s new wife and children sees Casey end up on the street and to make ends meet she finds work in a massage parlour. A chance encounter with an old man, Samuel, in a cemetery spooks her at first but a friendship is cemented and he becomes her surrogate guardian.
He encourages her to return to school and a reconciliation with both parents.
When a street kid spray paints a swastika on her jacket it is he who has to educate her about the offensive insignia. She is clueless about its significance and he, as a Holocaust survivor, enlightens her to its racial and cultural vilification.
In one of his last screen roles, Ed Asner plays Samuel superbly, downplaying the crusty, curmudgeonly character while not making him saccharine. It’s a performance that promotes the struggles and frustrations of trying to find forgiveness, of finding the tiger within.
There’s an easy chemistry between Asner and Josefsohn and some fine supporting work from Erica Piccininni as Casey’s mum.
Directed by Rafal Zielinski and written by Gina Wendkos, TIGER WITHIN is a life affirming film of modest proportion but boastful in its message of hope and education.
2022 Jewish International Film Festival Screening Dates
March 3- April 4 At Randwick Ritz, March 3-23 at Roseville Cinema.
Stay up to date with JIFF:
Website:www.jiff.com.au
Facebook:www.facebook.com/JewishIFF
Twitter:www.twitter.com/jewishiff
Instagram:www.instagram.com/jiff_oz/