‘Sky and Earth’ is flawed, but the audience-first drama still works

Israeli film critic Tomer Kamerling reviews “Sky and Earth” as a melodramatic thriller that aims to move and suspense its audience, and mostly succeeds. He argues that while the film lacks sophistication, it understands the viewing experience better than many more ambitious Israeli productions.

The story follows Aviv, played by Tom Avni, and Maya, played by Hila Saada, after their only son, Roy, a gifted elementary school athlete, is diagnosed with an illness and needs a bone marrow donation. As the couple searches for a suitable donor, they uncover questions about Roy’s birth and about things Aviv likely knows but has kept from Maya. Their search leads them to a haredi family, led by Yitzhak, played by Pini Tavor, and Devorah, played by Carmel Nitzar, whose young son, played by Daniel Nizri, is the same age as Roy and may be able to help.

Kamerling’s main complaints are about the script, written by Erez Tadmor and Rinat Levi Tang'ji, and about the directing by Roby Duenyas. He says the dialogue leaves no subtext, explaining too much instead of trusting viewers, and that the late-film “reveals” are really things the audience has already been told through earlier hints. He also criticizes Duenyas, known as an actor and television writer, for filming in a flat, old-fashioned TV style that adds nothing through camera work, sound, or editing.

Even so, Kamerling concludes that these flaws do not matter much because the film works where it counts: it is emotionally effective and keeps viewers on edge. He praises the moving performances by Avni and the child actors, says he badly wanted to know how it would end, and notes that the film’s simplicity sometimes becomes weakness, especially in a scene where Maya’s world collapses. He adds that Duenyas has a real concern for the audience, and that such audience-minded filmmaking is a better sign for Israeli cinema than another technically flashy film that forgets the people in the theater.