The Human Resources Manager (Eran Riklis, 2010): Israel / Germany / France / Romania posted in AFI Filmfest 2010, Films

Reviewed by Jeremy Del Bianco. Viewed at the AFI Film Festival, Hollywood.

The film The Human Resources Manager, directed by Israeli filmmaker Eran Rikins is a drama about a human resources manager (Mark Ivanir), who goes above and beyond his call of duty in order to give a proper burial to a deceased employee.  Along the way we see many unexpected complications, just when you think things couldn’t get any worse they do and the Resources Manager must find ways to deal with these issues in order to get the deceased woman back home.

Director Eran Rikins also know for his successes in other great films such as “Lemon Tree” and “The Syrian Bride,” really did a great job of creating his new film “The Human Resources Manager.” Audiences from all over will enjoy this film, which I believe deservers an award for its overall performance

After Yulia is killed in a suicide bombing in Jerusalem, the HR manager of the bakery where she once worked is given the task of making shore her body is buried in her faraway home.  Before doing so the HR manager must determine who this unidentified employee is.  She receives paychecks from the bakery but doesn’t appear to work there.  It turns out that her supervisor was having an affair with the woman and fired her when his wife found out.  Threw his investigation HR manager discovers that her supervisor kept her on the payroll.  A newspaper reporter following the story writes negative reviews, stating that the bakery doesn’t take good care of its employees.

In hopes of better press the boss of the bakery hires HR manager (Mark Ivanir) to sort things out.  His job is to find out as much as he can about the dead woman.  He discovers where she lived, that her ex-husband (Bogdan Stanoevitch) and her troubled son (Noah Silver) aren’t legally allowed to identify the body, which means he must take the body to Romania where her mother is able to identify her daughters body.

During the journey to Romania several misfortunes occur and it seems as if there is no hope in getting the womans body back home.  Despite the delays and bad luck HR Manager and his team refuse to give up.  When the determined team arrives, the mother identifies the woman as her daughter and asks them to burry her back in Jerusalem.

All in all this film was good due to great casting and locations Cinematographer Rainer Klausmann who added color and verity to the film.  You should see this brilliant film.