This superb little film, an astonishingly sure first feature from Isreali David Volach, is set deep within an ultra-Orthodox family in Jerusalem.

Volach himself came from such a community but rejected it to study film at the age of 25. His story is at once heartbreakingly tender and a stern indictment of religious fundamentalism.

Young Menahem (Ilan Griff) worships his father Abraham (Assi Dayan, the son of the military leader Moshe Dayan) who tells him that God doesn’t watch over those who don’t observe the Torah.

When the boy sees a faithful dog rushing after the ambulance carrying its dying owner to hospital, he asks: “Do good dogs go to heaven?”. “No,” Abraham replies, “animals have no wills, no souls and no commandments.”

Esther, his wife (Sharon Hacohen Bar) baulks at her husband’s harsh faith, but says nothing before writing down her feelings in her diary.

We too baulk at Abraham’s certainties but there remains a bond between the three of them which even such fundamentalism can’t break. And at the end of the film, after a tragedy that devastates Abraham, he reads the diary and shakes with regret and guilt.

This is one of the best debuts of its year (2007) which justly won a main prize at the Tribeca Film Festival. It is brilliantly acted, shot with rare skill and has the force of a Biblical parable without losing its essential affection towards its characters, even Abraham. Do not miss it.

Released 26 December.