“Past Life” is a tense and moving Israeli mystery based on a true story about a Holocaust survivor and his two daughters.

Directed by award-winning Israeli writer/director Avi Nesher, the film begins in 1977. The younger daughter, Sephi Milch (Joy Rieger), is an Israeli music student with a lovely soprano voice who longs to be a composer. She is performing in West Berlin as a soloist with her school choir. After the concert, she is shocked when an elderly Polish woman (Katarzyna Gniewkowska) loudly calls Sephi’s father a murderer. 

Shoah survivor Baruch Milch (Doron Tavory), a physician,  has never talked to Sephi and and her older sister Nana (Nelly Tagar) about his past. When Sephi returns to Israel, she says nothing to her father about the disturbing incident, but she reluctantly shares it with Nana, a rebellious journalist. 

Nana, who resents her father for his harsh treatment of her as a child, tackles the mystery like a sleuth to reveal their father’s wartime experiences. But what the sisters uncover is a mystery that keeps getting deeper and more complex.  

Nesher brilliantly builds suspense, and the fine cast brings  out layers of character, which deepen the moving story as the intriguing mystery takes the sisters and the audience down a rabbit hole of secrets. 

The film is shot in a visually rich style, and moving music frames the edge-of-your-seat story beautifully. The younger sister wants to dismiss what was said to her but the older sister embraces the idea that her father has a violent past. What they uncover if far different from what either expect.

Director Nesher, the son of Holocaust survivors, based the script on “Can Heaven Be Void?” the wartime diaries of  Milch. Nesher has said that “Past Life” is intended as the first film of a trilogy.

Movies described as “based on true events” can diverge widely from facts, but Nesher made an effort to stick closely to the real events rather than rewrite for dramatic effect. 

“Past Life” is a polished period drama that keeps the audience hooked with its suspenseful plot, affecting performances led by two strong female leads and heart-wrenching drama.