Two Israeli sisters unravel the shocking truth about their father’s murky wartime experiences this hybrid detective thriller and heart-tugging melodrama by award-winning filmmaker Avi Nesher.
Unfolding in the late 1970s, Past Life centres on the daughters of Holocaust survivors, combative liberal journalist Nana and her younger sister Sephi, a soprano and aspiring composer. After a performance in West Berlin, Sephi is accosted by an elderly Polish woman who angrily accuses her father of murder. Traumatised by the startling encounter, the sisters launch an investigation, attempting to discover what really happened to their father in Poland during the war. As guilty secrets and troubling revelations are dredged up, Past Life boldly charts dangerous emotional territory still very much a part of the Israeli collective subconscious.
Nominated for four 2017 Ophir Awards (Israeli Oscars) including Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress.
“Avi Nesher’s brilliant, haunting Past Life may be his best film yet – and that’s saying a lot.” - Jerusalem Post
English, German, Polish, Hebrew
Israel, Poland