Montreal 1948. On Rosh Hashanah, Chaim (a Yiddish writer) is forced to think of his religion when he's asked to be the tenth in a minyan. As he sits in the park, he suddenly sees an old friend whom he hasn't seen since they quarrelled when they were yeshiva students together. Hersh, a rabbi, survived Auschwitz and his faith was strengthened by his ordeal, while Chaim escaped the Nazis, but had lost his faith long before. The two walk together, reminisce, and argue passionately about themselves, their actions, their lives, their religion, their old quarrel, and their friendship.—Kathy Li

Rosh Hashana 1948. Chaim Kovler and Hersh Rasseyner were childhood friends in Bialystok, Poland, but have not seen each other in years when they were both twenty. Then, they became estranged for an argument they had on the issue of Judaism, specifically about leaving the yeshiva. Since, Chaim has become a Yiddish writer who has turned his back on the faith. Hersh has become an orthodox rabbi. By chance, they run into each other in a park in Montréal, where Hersh now lives and where New York based Chaim is visiting on a speaking engagement. Each believed the other had perished in the Holocaust. Initially, the two men forgive each other for the quarrel that has estranged them for all these years. But as they spend the better part of the afternoon together walking through the park and talking about their lives, they find that their individual views of Judaism have only strengthened over time, in large part because of the Holocaust, which claimed the lives of their respective families, including Chaim's wife. The question becomes whether their chance reunion will reunite them or tear them further apart emotionally.—Huggo

If there is one word to describe this movie it is "guilt." The guilt of surviving the holocaust while all others perished, the guilt of leaving family members or friends in limbo expecting the sun always to rise tomorrow, and the guilt of loving a g-d that turned his back on his most ardent followers in their time of need. Chaim and the Rabbi, are two childhood friends haunted by both their past experiences and decisions, or are they? The Rabbi not only feels the guilt of losing his friendship with his best friend Chaim, but when his father apologized for his treatment not accepting that apology. Chaim, while he feels bad about the loss of his friendship with the Rabbi, lives with the guilt of not being there for his family in their time of need. Deep down and side he feels guilty for his actions by hiding his cigarette and helping with the minyan. But in the end, Chaim continues to rejects the lifestyle required of an orthodox Jew and walks off into the sunset. In summary, not only this is a relative debate for those that survived the holocaust resulting in those that grew closer to g-d and those further away but is a movie of unique qualities. It reminded me of the old movies with Humphrey Bogart and other greats with the intense drama between two characters and where no one else existed.—Dave Moto