SONG OF SONGS

Year: 2005
UK: Soda Pictures
Cast: Natalie Press, Joel Chalfen, Julia Swift, Felicite Du Jeu, Amber Agar, Nick Atkinson, Tamara Barnett-Herrin, Amanda Boxer, Chai, Michael Colgan, Philip Dunbar, Sue Kelvin, Elliot Levy, Leon Lissek, Stavros Louca, Allan McTaggart, Justine Mitchell, Esme Stanford-Durkin, Orson Stanford-Durkin, Hortense Suleyman, Daniel Symmons, Jonathan Tafler
Director: Josh Appignanesi
Country: UK
Languages: English / Hebrew
UK: 80 mins
UK Release Date: 10 February 2006 (Limited Release - London, ICA)
UK Distributor
ICA

Synopsis

Ruth (Natalie Press) is a devoutly religious but as-yet unmarried Jewish woman who seeks meaning in her submission to the religious Law. Obedient but troubled, she's just returned from a seminary in Israel to look after her widowed, dying mother in the family home in north London. Her brother David (Joel Chalfen) has estranged himself from the family, and teaches English at a further education college. But though he disavows his religious past, he remains an ethical, lonely young man avoiding any deep contact with those in the secular world.

Ruth tries to fulfil her mother's instruction to reunite the family and tracks down the brother she hasn't seen in two years. He strongly resists her request to return. But in the clash of their strongly held beliefs about what constitutes a good life, both are forced to question the lives they thought they desired. Meanwhile, the world around them teeters ever closer to war.

Finally, David agrees to return to the family home. But when they arrive, he won't let his mother know he's there. Instead, he tries to create a new Law, taking things into his own hands. But Ruth is stronger than she looks. Their secret and increasingly twisted games constructed around the biblical Law begin to escalate to violent proportions...

Topical in its examination of the links between belief and violence, SONG OF SONGS draws on modern European cinema and biblical sources to explore the 'return of religion.'