听 User Rating 
As scathing as it is funny, "Late Marriage" is an accomplished and tremendously engaging debut from Israeli director Dover Kosashvili. In delving into the staunchly uncompromising world of Middle Eastern marriage traditions, Kosashvili certainly gave himself a tough target to satirise and wring laughs from.
However, with its skilful mix of dry humour and impressively balanced, bittersweet observations, the film makes incisive comment on the malevolent, suffocating aspects of heritage, and the irresistible pull of family loyalty.
With a uniformly excellent cast, this Tel Aviv-set tale relates the plight of 31-year-old student Zasa (Ashkenazi), who endures and perennially avoids his family's efforts to find him a young virgin to marry. Little do they know that he loves a 34-year-old divorc茅e and mother (Elikabetz) - an unspeakable no-no in their eyes. So, the love of his life or the love of his family?
Displaying exceptional clarity, Kosashvili combines comedy and tragedy with nary a hint of manipulation, providing due respect for tradition but also a passionate plea for individual liberty.
Such juggling is particularly effective when Zasa's family stalk his 'fallen woman', and then moments later, the comedy is crushed when the family violently bear down on her with all the threatening ferocity of the Mafia. The denouement is an excellent statement to the bitter effects of emotional cowardice.
A lively script, an array of touching characters and situations that are fully expoited of their dramatic and comedic potential, this is an honest portrait of family tensions that Hollywood rarely approaches. Don't let this film's limited release deprive you of what is ultimately a hugely enjoyable, affecting tale, and an exceptional piece of world cinema.
In Hebrew with English subtitles.
