Jewish Film Society: Melting Away

Sunday, April 2, 4pm
The J’s Staenberg Family Complex, Arts & Education Building

Tickets: 
Free for members of the J’s Jewish Film Society
$8 for non-members
Tickets may be purchased at the door. For additional information, contact Zelda Sparks, 314.442.3169.

Melting Away

Doron Eran’s empathetic and touching drama “Melting Away” may be the first Israeli feature film about parents coming to terms with a transgendered child. It begins with a poignant confession.

“No one tells you what it means to be a good mother – if it’s being the mother my son wants me to be, or the mother I think he needs,” a 40-something woman sadly confides to us, before we realize that she is speaking to, of all people, a private detective.

Between their conversation and a succinct, effective flashback, we learn that Galya and her self-made, my-way-or-the-highway husband, Shlomo, locked their teenage son Assaf out of the house four years ago when they discovered his stash of women’s clothing.

The filmmaker and his partner and screenwriter, Billy Ben-Moshe, reportedly were inspired by the aftermath of the 2009 shooting attack at the Israel Gay Youth Organization in Tel Aviv that left two dead. Some parents, presumably shocked to learn that their children weren’t straight, declined to visit them in the hospital.

“Melting Away” is a satisfying, uplifting movie that succeeds on the basis of consistently solid acting that builds and honors our emotional investment in the characters’ destinies.