What can I say about Ushpizin except that it’s a sleeper…you can sleep right through it. The Israeli film, whose title requires a fluency in Hebrew to properly pronounce it, is set during the Jewish holiday of Sokkot, a time when Orthodox Jews live in a wooden shelter for seven days and entertain guests. This tradition is considered to be a blessing, more so if the guests are holy (or Ushpizin).

Moshe Bellanga (Shuli Rand) is one such Orthodox Jew. He is devout, big-hearted, and broke. But thanks to an anonymous gift of $1000, he is able to afford the holiday preparations that include building the wooden shelter called the ‘succah’. Moshe and his wife Mali (Rand’s real-life wife Michal Bat Sheva Rand) have been married for 5 years but are childless, a fact she carries with a heavy heart. But that is not their only concern. Presenting as their Ushpizin guests are Moshe’s old pals from his past life as a hoodlum. Freshly released (or so they claim) from prison, Eliyahu Scorpio (Shaul Mizrahi) and Jossef (Ilan Ganani) are anything but holy. Unruly, thoughtless and antagonistic, they are major nuisances to the Bellangas and subsequently the scourge of the Orthodox Jew neighborhood.

Ushpizin was a winner at the Berlin Film Festival, Best Actor for its star and screenwriter Shuli Rand. It is well-written and will no doubt be well-received among serious filmgoers and film critics. Acting is top-notch, particularly from Rand who not only has a strong, dynamic presence but also has exceeding depth of emotions. He can seethe with anger just by an intense look. Equal worthy credit goes to Sheva for a softer, more animated, melancholy Mali opposite her husband (on both counts). She has an amusing habit of creeping towards the door when someone comes calling, as if afraid of letting the person on that she is at home.

However, the film’s Orthodox Jew peculiarities will make it a tough sell as most of the audience is not expected to know about them. Some are explained through in the course of the drama and the actions, but the rest will remain puzzling. Why live in a wooden shelter? Why seven days? What else is the significant of the citron (lemon) aside from being a ‘good luck’ charm for bearing male children? Moshe does not hesitate to fork out $1000 for what is considered to be the most perfectly shaped citron in Jerusalem. The fruit thankfully becomes a pivotal plot device later on when Eliyahu and Jossef, in an attempt to make up for the troubles they cause the Bellangas, use it to cook up a cuisine for Moshe. This allows Rand to work Moshe’s reaction into an incredibly powerful look that seethes with anger. Angry enough to do what Eliyahu fears – retaliate violently as he has known him to do before.

Some of the earlier sequences are too brief to get familiar with the characters, if not in name at least through their onscreen expositions. The frequent cuts are distracting. Characters are thrown in abruptly with no introduction, their names unheard until the halfway point of the film. (Moshe and Mali’s names are not until 20 minutes into the film.) The Bellangas’ individual ‘cry out to God’ sequence, cross-cut with each other for dramatic effect, feels overdone. Okay, Orthodox Jews do that. But the Bellangas’ cries look like they have been played up in script for the camera. Or maybe it is just the way Moshe’s closing operatic scream is photographed. Either way, it feels overdone.

Yet there is much to look forward to in Ushpizin (even if you may have trouble pronouncing it correctly). This rich, sentimental drama is a sumptuous treat.