More than I deserve- Film presented at Sarasota Jewish Film Festival

“More Than I Deserve,” tells an intersecting story of two communities in Israel, new immigrants from the former Soviet Union and the ultra-Orthodox

Pini Tavger’s More Than I Deserve tells an intersecting story of two communities in Israel, new immigrants from the former Soviet Union and the ultra-Orthodox, that have both often been stereotypically portrayed in the past. But Tavger, an actor making his feature directorial debut who won the Best Screenplay Award at the Jerusalem Film Festival for this film, manages to find a fresh and engaging story to tell about them. The characters, who live in the shadow of mainstream Israeli society, feel real, in a drama where everyone is flawed and searching for redemption.

The movie is told through the eyes of Pinchas (Micha Prudovsky), a pre-teen who lives with his mother, Tamara (Ana Dubrovitzki) in Haifa. They immigrated a few years ago from Ukraine and the two of them are all alone in the world. She works nights in a hospital and is having an affair with a married man she hopes will leave his wife, although she knows as well as we do that he won’t. She tries to be a good mom but she is depressed and cynical and doesn’t have much energy left for Pinchas.

The plot gets going when he learns that boys from his class who are going to have bar mitzvahs that year can get free lessons from Shimon (Yaakov Zada-Daniel), an ultra-Orthodox man. Pinchas wants to have a bar mitzvah like all the other kids and asks Tamara to sign the form but she laughs at him.

They eat ham and she doesn’t think that this bar mitzvah business has anything to do with them. But Pinchas persists and manages to take lessons behind her back, becoming increasingly close to Shimon. Almost overnight, Shimon becomes a father figure to this lonely kid.

Tamara is upset when she learns about the lessons but as she gets to know Shimon a bit better, she appreciates how he is helping her son – her married lover barely says hello to Pinchas on the way to her bedroom. Shimon’s story emerges gradually. He is newly observant and became religious after struggling with drug addiction.

PINCHAS ADMIRES Shimon, but he lives with his parents and doesn’t have a real job. Tamara can see Shimon’s limitations, but as they spend time together, Shimon and Tamara are drawn to each other and a romance develops between them. Their relationship complicates Pinchas’ feelings for Shimon and gets Shimon into trouble with his rabbi and others who want him to marry an observant woman they consider suitable for him, as well as with his parents, who look down on Tamara.

The title of the movie is an answer that Shimon gives Tamara when she asks him why he isn’t married. When he is set up on dates by a matchmaker, they try to pair him with women who are right for him, according to the strict social norms of the religious community. “Apparently, I want more than I deserve,” he tells her. This phrase resonates throughout the movie, as all three of the main characters so clearly deserve more than life has given them and yet are told by the people around them repeatedly that they don’t count for much.