Educational Media Reviews Online

This moving and beautifully made documentary centers on Lior Liebling, a boy born with Down syndrome. Lior’s parents are both rabbis, and the first time we see him as a toddler, he’s singing Jewish songs on his mother’s lap. Sadly, his mother, Devora, will die of breast cancer when Lior is six. But Lior, who loves to pray, to doven in Hebrew, will be surrounded by the love of his father, his father’s new wife, and his three sisters and brother, Yoni. The narrative builds towards the rite of passage Lior will achieve when at thirteen he will become a bar mitzvah, a man.

Lior, who we see from the age of five up until fifteen, is high functioning and he has a lot to say—subtitles are provided as his speech is not always clear. He’s a spirited and unconditionally loving boy with a great sense of humor. He’s inventive and playful—he likes to fudge the truth, only to follow it up with, “April Fool’s!” When asked if he has Down syndrome, he says, no, I have Up syndrome! He looks forward to drinking beer when he’s older, and to going to college. He develops a crush on a developmentally disabled girl named Esther.

His deep and substantive religious faith is his anchor and his passion. Lior’s dad suspects that there are “fewer veils between him and God” than for most people. When Lior reads from the Torah at his bar mitzvah, he fills the congregation with joy and pride. His brother, Yoni, the sibling with whom he’s closest, cries throughout the ceremony.

Lior’s mother’s life, we learn from his godmother, was about connecting, and Lior is as deeply connected to God as he is to everyone around him. He does, however, get frustrated in interviews when he doesn’t want to – or can’t – answer straightforward questions. But when his father asks him right before his bar mitzvah how he’s dealing with his nerves, Lior says “it beats, beats, beats. I just let my heart beat.”

Splicing in home movies with years of interviews, and fly on the wall as well as special event filming, Ilana Trachtman’s directing and Zelda Greenstein’s editing are accomplished and seamless. The evocative soundtrack, composed by the klezmer and bluegrass virtuosos Andy Statman, hits all the right notes. Praying with Lior celebrates family love, the Jewish religion, and a very special and “up” young man.

Awards

• Audience Award Best Documentary 2008, San Diego, Vancouver, and Seattle Jewish Film Festivals
• Audience Award Best Documentary 2007 Boston and Washington Jewish Film Festivals
• Media Award 2008 from National Down Syndrome Congress and AAIDD – American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities