Do You Believe in Love? (Dan Wasserman, 2013) | Israel

“Wow.” That’s all I had to say when I walked out of the warm theatre on that cloudy Saturday morning. I knew what I had seen for the last fifty minutes but I still had to take a minute to comprehend it. This documentary film brings up an issue that is a basic need for every human being, but one that many never get a chance to get. No matter where you are in the world, what color your skin is, or what religious bacground you’re from, everyone wants to feel loved. For some people with certain disabilities, it’s harder for them to find someone to look past that, and not see it as a fault. Too often disabled people go unnoticed in our society.

This documentary is about a very old love matchmaker from Israel with the name Tova. She is physically disabled and confined to a wheel-chair but her mind is still as sharp as ever. Along with her family a caregiver helps take care of her every need. She has been making matches for couples her whole life, that’s what people come to all over to see her for. This documentary film follows Tova and her family around while they run the family love-matching business.

In the film it shows a blind young women who has been looking for someone who will not look at her as disabled and will still love her the same. So this young women goes to Tova who matches her up with a guy on the phone. The guy seems interested in meeting her until she tells him that she is blind and then he hangs up on her. This scene was heartbreaking and very emotional for a lot of the audience. Afterwards, Tova matches her up with another guy who meets her and also finds out that she is blind. This guy doesn’t reject her and decides to be with her in spite of her being blind. But trouble hits again and we’re put through another emotional roller-coaster.

Not only do we meet Tova drink the film but we also get to meet her husband, Gabi. We get a glimpse of their everyday lives together and get to see how much love they have for each other. Watching him talk about his wife disabled and how he still loved her no matter what definitely left a lot of people with teary eyes in the theatre.

At the end of the day, this is one of the most socially responsible and important films to come out all year, and that alone is reason enough to watch this beautiful and powerful emotional journey.

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Published:
02.17.14 / 11pm
Category:
Films, Santa Barbara Film Festival 2014