New film 'The Ring' traces a family's Holocaust trauma - film review

Adir Miller is Israel’s most popular stand-up comedian and comic actor, but he is also one of the country’s best actors period, as he proved in a quartet of movies by Avi Nesher, most notably The Matchmaker, for which he won an Ophir Award in his first leading dramatic role. 

Now, with The Ring, which opens throughout Israel on December 19, Miller emphasizes his dramatic side in a passion project based on his own family’s story of Holocaust survival. He stars in it, and he also wrote and co-directed it, with brother directing duo, Doron Paz and Yoav Paz of Plan A and Jeruzalem. 

While the story is inherently dramatic – it centers on a trip he and his estranged daughter take to retrieve the titular piece of jewelry, which was taken from his mother during World War II in Hungary – Miller doesn’t suppress his comic style. The fish-out-of-water journey of an outspoken Israeli to Budapest gives him a great opportunity to toss out the wisecracks his fans love. But while the shifts in tone are occasionally jarring, Miller manages for the most part to make the sentimental moments work alongside one-liners as he tells a story of loss and redemption that will likely be a huge hit. 

It opens with a World War II-era prologue, where a young Hungarian Jewish woman clutching a baby manages to escape being forced into a cattle car and sent to Auschwitz, but her problems are by no means at an end. Cornered by a Hungarian soldier working with the Nazis, she agrees to part with her valuable ring in order to save their lives. 

Cut to the early 2000s in Israel. The woman, Violetta (Tikva Dayan), is now elderly and addresses a group of bored high schoolers to tell them about her Holocaust experiences. She is as tough today as she was as a young woman, and when she passes the disrespectful teens on the street, she grabs the cellphone one of them was using to amuse himself during her lecture and throws it into the river. 

Her son, Arnon (Miller), who was the baby she held during the prologue, is very close to her, and they have an affectionate relationship, but one filled with endless bickering. A driving instructor, he was once a rising star lawyer in the prosecutor’s office, and he derailed his career because of a gambling addiction. The scandal wrecked his marriage, and Arnon, who is observant, is estranged from his only daughter, Alma (Joy Rieger), a researcher for television news, because she is a lesbian, and he doesn’t approve. 

When Violetta’s health deteriorates, Arnon feels he must travel to Hungary in search of the ring she bartered for their lives. Despite their estrangement, he wants Alma to come along and help. Alma, who is as close to her grandmother as she is distant from her father, reluctantly agrees. 

Relationships in the film carries 'The Ring' forward

Much of the movie details their search through Budapest, and as interesting as this city’s atmosphere is, it’s the relationships among the three leads that carry the movie forward. Miller doesn’t hold back the laughs, and some of the best dialogue comes from their needling each other. “You know why God created vegans?” he asks his daughter, who eats only plant-based food. “So vegetarians would be less annoying.” But there is good dialogue in the more emotional scenes as well, such as when Alma asks her grandmother why her father is so full of darkness, and Violetta replies, “He’s not that dark, it’s just that something is blocking his light.”

The trio of actors work well together. Rieger, one of Israel’s most popular actresses, is currently starring in the film Arugam Bay and appeared in Valley of Tears and Image of Victory. She is totally believable as Miller’s daughter, who is exasperated with him but at the same time craves his approval. Like Miller, Dayan is best known for comedy, and she relishes all the comic moments in The Ring. But when she gets the chance to play a dramatic scene, she is equally good, and recently won an Ophir Award as one of the mothers in Seven Blessings. 

Miller is generous with his cast and doesn’t give himself all the best lines. Like Dayan, he demonstrates his ability to mix comedy and drama here. It’s important that you accept him as a self-destructive man who can’t control his gambling and a stubborn type who is so angry that his daughter is marrying a woman that he cuts her off – but also as a man so devoted to his mother that he will go to ends of the earth for her. Miller was inspired by his own family’s story, and he makes it clear that Arnon’s demons are related to his trauma as a second-generation Holocaust survivor. 

While occasionally the writing bogs down in exposition, his energy and intensity as an actor manage to keep the story on track, and the audience will be with him every step of the way. While you will root for him and Alma to find the ring, you’ll be at least as interested in how they find their way back to each other.