THE VIGIL
(September 2019)
For thousands
of years, religious Jews have practiced the ritual of “the vigil”.
When a member
of the community dies, the body is watched round the clock in shifts by a
Shomer, or watchman, who recites the Psalms to comfort the deceased’s soul and
protect it from unseen evil.
This watchman
is typically a family member or friend, but there are paid Shomers.
Hired to sit
the vigil when no one else can.
And this is exactly the situation Yakov Ronen (Dave
Davis) finds himself in.
Struggling with the rent, finding himself “… having
to choose between medication and meals,” Yakov expects a vigil like those he’s
sat before.
Which, of course, is so not what happens to poor Yakov…
The Vigil is
writer/director Keith Thomas’ feature debut* and it’s a tight, expertly crafted
film, as cramped and oppressive as the Litvak home, in whose dim rooms and shadowed
halls Yakov must face the terrible weight of his guilt.
“He was broken
by memories. Hmm! Those kind of memories that you saw. They bite. They bite and
the biting never stops.”
* Which he’s following up with not just the Firestarter remake, but an episode of
Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities
anthology as well…
(The Vigil OS
courtesy of impawards.com.)
