It can take a fright for someone to realise their behaviour has to change. For Yoram, that fright is his 17-year-old daughter Roni attempting suicide. After the death of Roni’s mother over a year ago, the relationship between daughter and father has become non-existent: when she disappears for a few days, Yoram waits over 48 hours to report her missing.

Menashe Noy’s Yoram gives nothing away, his face constantly expressionless. Whether it’s because of the loss of his wife or his masculinity, he’s blind to the extent of Roni’s struggles. It’s a running theme when Roni’s uncle later says that everyone is having a hard time, diminishing the significance of what she’s going through.

The quiet is key to The Day After I’m Gone. The family meet at a home in a remote and arid part of Israel. Tel Aviv is a hubbub of elated sports fans and punters at a funfair across from Yoram’s flat, contrasting the silence between him and Roni.

Despite its good intentions and endorsement of emotional communication, Nimrod Eldar’s debut is a little too sparse. Its singular focus on Yoram means Zohar Meidan’s Roni is a part of the background. Meidan plays her effectively as a reclusive adolescent, but never gets a chance to bring her fully to life. Instead, much of the film is Noy acting cold, dismissing the concerns of those around his character. While that stubborn stoicism is the point, it’s mundanely portrayed, with nothing to balance it out or propel Yoram’s arc along. That imbalance of pace means revelations come too late and too much time is spent inactive and inert.

Some might find The Day After I’m Gone appropriately meditative and in search of the right words, but its breakthrough moments of clarity don’t make up for how meandering it is.

RATING: 2/5

Available to watch on: Mubi

INFORMATION

CAST: Menashe Noy, Zohar Meidan, Alon Neuman, Sarit Vino-Elad, Claudia Dulitchi, Sharon Hacoen, Miri Aloni

DIRECTOR: Nimrod Eldar

WRITER: Nimrod Eldar

SYNOPSIS: Yoram, a 50-year-old veterinarian living in Tel-Aviv is forced to re-examine his relationship with his adolescent daughter Roni, after she wishes to end her life. He decides to take her on a journey to visit her mother’s family, a process of self and mutual discovery in a primordial desert land enveloping the Dead Sea.