Foreign films are a hard sell for some people. Many moviegoers are quick to dismiss them as pretentious, esoteric little things best reserved for only the hippest of hipsters.  Unless the foreign film in question is dubbed over in English and features giant rubbery monsters moshing in the middle of a balsa wood model of Tokyo, they're not interested.  They blanch at the mere thought of subtitles! They're at the movies; God forbid they READ! That really is a shame too, because there is a veritable treasure trove of cinematic gems out there at which many people turn up their noses for no other reason than because they aren't big-budget blockbusters from Hollywood USA.

Hey, I GET it.  Even an "avid cinephile" is occasionally in the mood to see what Michael Bay decided to blow up this time or watch Jason Statham defy the laws of both physics and vehicular mechanics yet again. It's perfectly fine if you enjoy those kinds of movies, but if you dismiss a film simply because it's not that kind of movie, you're missing out.

Fill the Void is the first offering from Israeli writer-director Rama Burshtein, and although there isn't a single car chase or explosion to be found in the film, its seven Ophir Awards - the Israeli Oscars - speak for themselves.

The film centers on 18-year-old Shira Mendelman (Hadas Yaron), an ultra-Orthodox Jewish girl living in the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community of Tel Aviv.  Because she is of marrying age, Shira's parents, Rabbi Aharon (Chayim Sharir) and Rivka (Irit Sheleg), are in the process of looking for potential suitors for their young daughter when tragedy strikes.  Shira's older sister Esther (Renana Raz) dies in childbirth, leaving the father, Yochai (Yiftach Klein), widowed and his newborn son motherless.  Being a single father to a newborn baby is a difficult job in any culture, but it's also a source of controversy in Yochai's strict religious community. He quickly makes arrangements to relocate to Belgium in order to marry a widowed childhood acquaintance. Not wanting to lose the grandchild and son-in-law who are all that remain of their deceased daughter, the Mendelmans pressure Shira to abandon any desirable marriage prospects in order to marry the much-older Yochai - to fill the void as it were.

Solid performances abound throughout, but Hadas Yaron deserves special mention.  Despite this being only her second feature film and her first leading role, Yaron gives a beautiful performance as Shira. Often with little more than a wide-eyed, pleading expression, she conveys the entire gamut of complex, conflicting emotions a young girl in such a difficult position should have. Her eyes speak volumes even when Yaron herself is silent.  It's a subtle, nuanced and yet incredibly powerful portrayal totally deserving of the Best Actress Ophir it earned Yaron.

While you certainly can't count it among the multiplex megahits that inundate theaters this time of year, Fill the Void is a wonderful, subdued film that offers a welcome respite from the usual summer fare.

FILL THE VOID, July 12-18, The Grand Cinema, 606 S. Fawcett Ave., Tacoma, $4.50-$9, 253. 593.4474