Neither Day Nor Night

Post-screening discussion with director Pinhas Veuillet at both screenings.

Set in the Israeli city of Bnei Brak, this absorbing and powerful drama from Jerusalem-born director Pinhas Veuillet is a meticulously detailed narrative centered around a conflict between Shmuel, the patriarch of a French Sephardic family, and the headmaster at his son’s school. Despite the boy’s educational qualifications and remarkable abilities as a star pupil, he is not accepted within a very prestigious, predominantly Ashkenazi Yeshiva; the family feels this is due to their Sephardic lineage. Unwilling to accept this reality, Shmuel takes action—which will lead to tragedy. Neither Day Nor Night is also the deeply personal work of a filmmaker who left a strict Orthodox community at a young age, later using cinema to explore the contours of the world he knew.