Song Of Songs

London’s Orthodox Jewish community has rarely been represented on screen, and this début feature captures the feeling of an enclosed world, where believer Nathalie Press’ faith is sorely tested by caring for her terminally ill mother and trying to restore links with her wayward sibling Joel Chalfen, an intellectual rebel estranged from both religion and family. With its hints of sexual transgression, Appignanesi’s concentrated drama seeks to explore the human impulses which escape the bounds of belief systems, but, intense performances and DV claustrophobia notwithstanding, it’s simply too wilfully elliptical to communicate its meaning effectively.