Fill the Void, review - Telegraph Dir: Rama Burshtein; Starring: Hadas Yaron, Yiftach Klein, Irit Sheleg, Renana Raz, Chayim Sharir, Hilda Feldman. Fill the Void is as well-versed in the rules of matchmaking as a Jane Austen novel, and it bends them as artfully as wicker. Rama Burshtein's film is an irresistibly tender drama of love and duty, set in a deeply Orthodox Jewish community in present-day Tel Aviv. The Elizabeth Bennet of the piece is Shira (Hadas Yaron), an 18-year-old girl who realises that her personal romantic plans may have to be indefinitely put on hold. As the film begins, Shira is in a supermarket, browsing for potential husbands with her mother Rivka (Irit Sheleg), and they locate a promising specimen near the yoghurt. Esther (Renana Raz), Shira's older sister, has already found herself a keeper: bright-eyed, thick-bearded Yochay (Yiftach Klein), with whom she is expecting a son. But cruelly, Esther dies in early labour - and Yochay, bereft and heartbroken, must find a new wife to raise his motherless child. Could that role be played by young Shira? Well, Rivka certainly believes so, although at first Shira is horrified by the thought. Fill the Void is a real collector's item: a film in which the forces of religion and tradition are shown to be working together, however haltingly and imperfectly, for the good. Burshtein, herself a convert to Haredi Judaism, charts a consistently surprising course through this very complex moral scenario, as Shira seeks advice from her family and friends, and also her Rabbi (Melech Thal). All this allows for a wonderful self-contained sequence involving an elderly widow and a broken oven that speaks with the clarity and humour of a Talmudic parable. The question the film keeps returning to is this: should a teenage girl on the verge of romantic independence be expected to forgo it for the benefit of her loved ones? Burshtein asks you to consider the shoulds, but also to entertain the coulds, and teases us with the possibility that Shira might find a solution that would please everyone concerned, including herself. You certainly find yourself hoping that she will, thanks to Yaron's sensational performance. But also because of the warm depiction of the Haredi community itself, with its shared meals, singing and love of practical wisdom. As in Austen, Fill the Void takes place in a strictly rule-bound society. And as in Austen, the menfolk only think they are in charge here. After Esther's death, Yochay raises his eyes heavenward in the synagogue, to plead for help from a higher power. The camera cuts to the reverse angle. It's the women's gallery he looks to.