‘Heaven and Earth’ Draws Criticism, Yet Delivers as a Crowd-Pleasing Thriller

Israeli film critic Tomer Kemerling reviews "Heaven and Earth," a new melodramatic thriller by director Ruby Duenyas that was published on 26 June 2026. He argues that the film has plenty of flaws, but still succeeds in doing what it set out to do, move and suspense its audience.

The story follows Aviv, played by Tom Avni, and Maya, played by Hila Saada, who learn that their only son, Roy, a promising elementary-school athlete played by Sharon Barak, is ill and needs a bone marrow transplant. As they search for a compatible donor, they uncover unsettling details about Roy’s birth and about things Aviv appears to know but has hidden from Maya. Their search leads them to a Haredi family that may be able to help, including Yitzhak, played by Pini Tabger, Dvora, played by Carmel Nezer, and their youngest son, Roy’s age, played by Daniel Nizri.

Kemerling’s main complaints are aimed at the script, written by Eran Tzur Tadmor and Rinat Levi Tangy, which he says spells out too much instead of trusting the audience to read subtext. He also says the late-film revelations are not really revelations, because the movie has already dropped enough hints. On the directing side, he says Duenyas, better known as an actor and television writer, films the material in a plain TV-style manner, with little help from camera work, sound, or editing.

Even so, he concludes that these weaknesses do not matter much because the film works as entertainment. He says its emotional power comes from Avni and the child actors, and its suspense comes from making him want to know how things end. He calls Duenyas a filmmaker with no grand pretensions, for better and worse, and says that while the film’s language is simple and sometimes simplistic, it is still made with the audience in mind. Kemerling says that is better for Israeli cinema than another visually ambitious film that forgets there is a viewer on the other side of the screen.