Reaching for Heaven

Reaching for Heaven’s first season follows the lives of an ordinary Tel Aviv family coping with the father’s newly adopted religious commitment. The whole family does its best to preserve its unity, although none of the family is willing to join the father in his new way of life.  The story is told from the mother’s point of view, and as the central character she is the children’s main support as they slowly lose their father, and a source of emotional strength to her husband who is in the process of changing his entire way of life.

The second season describes what is happening to the family five years later. Ronny is living in an illegal religious Jewish settlement in the Occupied Territories but is still very much involved in the lives of his two children. His discussions with Nurit over matters concerning the children usually end in a fight. Nurit is still looking for a new life for herself, Oded is up for military service and Shira is reaching puberty.  The children are torn between their parents.  On the background of the explosive social-political situation in Israel, with disengagement from Gaza and from some of the West Bank settlements looming on the horizon, the fate of the Aviram family cannot fail to excite our interest.