The "religious" channel Vision TV has been showing Jewish themed films all week. Last night, there was a charming little film titled, The Quarrel.
The revelation of the film was Saul Rubinek, who plays Rabbi Hersh, who's childhood friend, Chaim Kovler, suddenly returns after a prolonged absence. Kovler is played by the very wasp R. H. Thomson, but who I think looks (acts?) convincingly Jewish.
The two had quarreled, and ended their long friendship, when Hersh planned to open a Yeshiva. Chaim declines Hersh's request to help him with the school by declaring that he had renounced his Jewish faith. Soon after, he leaves Montreal, and abandons Hersh. Chaim became a relatively successful writer, and the film starts when he returns to Montreal, after many years of absence, on a publicity tour of his book.
The forgiveness of the film's title refers to the skeletons of the two friends: Chaim's inability to forgive the murderers of his parents and brother during the holocaust, and Hersh's inability to forgive Chaim for abandoning him and their faith when he was trying to rebuild that very hope and future which the Nazis destroyed for him. Of all people, Chaim should have been able to understand this, was Herch's reasoning.
The story and acting were a little clumsy, but it was Rubinek who made it worth watching, as the self-effacing, ever-suffering rabbi. Rubinek has acted in a variety of minor roles, and his name and face are familiar enough, often as a villain or an usavory character, but it was this little role that was made for him.
The final scene, where the two reconciled friends perform an impromptu dance, exotic and Jewish, is one of the most charming. The film is part of a series observing the Jewish New Year, with The Quarrel illustrating Yom Kippur.