It is rare for an Israeli filmmaker to direct a foreign-language remake of their own work. Now, Savi Gabizon has done just that with "Longing", a faithful remake of his 2017 Israeli film, which originally starred Israeli actor Shai Avivi.
Translating a film from one language and culture to another does not always work, as seen when Austrian director Michael Haneke recreated his own Funny Games for an American audience. But in Gabizon’s case, the transition proves effective both dramatically and emotionally.
'Longing'
(Video: United King Films)
The film’s title refers to a complex and elusive emotion. Can someone long for a person whom they never met or a place they have never been? Richard Gere in the leading role, learns that he unknowingly fathered a son — only to find out at the same moment that the boy recently died in a car crash that may not have been accidental.
How does someone process this dual revelation — discovering a son he never knew, only to immediately lose him? The film begins with Daniel Bloch, a businessman in Canada (where the film was shot), meeting his former partner at her request. She delivers the shocking news, sending him on a journey to piece together the life of the son he never met.
Daniel visits the school his son attended, where he learns the boy had been infatuated with his French teacher (Diane Kruger) and was expelled after spray-painting a love poem to her on the school walls.
He also meets the teenage girl who had been his son’s girlfriend and whose family took him in, as well as a drug dealer with whom his son had started a business venture that collapsed after his death. Over time, Daniel realizes his son may not have been the perfect young man he imagined but rather an obsessive and tormented soul — much like Daniel himself was becoming.
Gabizon’s Longing was a uniquely Israeli film, blending absurdity with melancholy in a way that resonated deeply with local audiences. The themes of grief and mourning, ever-present in Israeli reality — especially after October 7 — were an intrinsic part of its DNA. Israeli actor Shai Avivi, known for portraying characters on the edge of collapse, was a perfect fit for the role in the original.
Get the Ynetnews app on your smartphone: Google Play: https://bit.ly/4eJ37pE | Apple App Store: https://bit.ly/3ZL7iNv
The American remake, which is actually a Canadian production, takes on a different tone. Gere’s presence inherently shifts the character’s demeanor — less frantic, more composed. This raises the question: would a man like Daniel Bloch truly descend into absurdity while attempting to understand the son he never knew, effectively stepping into his shoes?
Stories often explore sons trying to follow in their fathers’ footsteps but rarely the other way around. Yet Gere makes this transformation convincing, in part because the film itself evolves into something else.
What drives his character is guilt — the guilt of a father toward the son he never had the chance to raise. Daniel reveals that he never wanted to be a father because his own father was abusive and he feared becoming like him. This, he learns, is why the mother kept his paternity a secret.
While one might question why this information was hidden from him, the secrecy propels Daniel into an existential crisis, wandering through the film’s surreal landscape with a sense of profound regret. In a way, his son, Alan, becomes a ghost that haunts and ultimately possesses him, embodying the loss that now defines him.
Daniel remains an enigma. His personal life is a blank slate — no friends, no romantic relationships, his only conversations limited to a secretary and a lawyer. It is as if he structured his life to avoid any situation that might force him to become a father.
Longing is a film about tormented fathers, all burdened by guilt toward their children. In one of its most unusual scenes, Daniel meets another grieving father (Larry Day) at a cemetery, leading to one of the strangest weddings ever depicted on screen. The film ultimately finds romance in its exploration of grief, portraying how guilt can lead to absurd but strangely logical resolutions.
While the Israeli Longing was deeply rooted in the local experience, the North American version exists in a more detached space. Yet this detachment gives it its own distinct power. After all, it is a film about a man severing himself from reality, chasing death while desperately trying to reconnect with life. It lingers in the twilight zone of longing.