The narrative in Empathy moves backwards and forwards in time as it shows the interaction of four groups of people: a young Israeli woman, an Arab family, a married lawyer with a wife and mentally and physically handicapped son, and four Russian thugs, with the youngest still living with his father and thus not yet a full-fledged member of the gang. Some of the initial events are trivialdrunken pedestrians, an irritated driver, and some significantan accident, a separation. All are shown to be related, with the film also accounting for the circumstances that led to these moments and eventually closing off if not always resolving the stories.
The title suggests that an affinity exists among the events and the people responsible for the events, but that connection is like the attraction between the spheres, at once both powerful and invisible. As in life, the precipitating movements are set up by fleeting moments, and Empathy captures those moments beautifully. The burglar's actual encounter with the object of his friends' desires, the spinning turtle, the handicapped young man in his room, the sharp click of the switchblade are brilliant captures of these slices in the story.
The intertwining stories are clear despite the narrative flourishes. Less clear though extremely intriguing is the casting decision in support of the story line which places "white" Israelis, especially Russian immigrants on one side, often as victimizers, and "people of color," including Sephardic Jews and Arabs, on the other as victims.
