Tarek (Shredi Jabarin), a former soccer player from Palestine, is being driven by two members of a terrorist group to Tel Aviv. He is very nervous about his mission to detonate the vest of explosives he is wearing. But the money he is being paid will go to his father whose reputation has been tarnished in his community. When he arrives in a crowded marketplace, he presses the button but the explosives do not go off. Tarek flees the scene and finds an electrician named Katz (Shlomo Wishinsky) who says it will take two days to get a new trigger. This intense young Palestinian convinces the men who hired him to wait until Sunday since Saturday is Sabbath and few people will be on the streets.
Tarek decides that he needs to go undercover since news reports are already circulating about an Arab terrorist crossing into the country. When he spies a leak in Katz's roof, he volunteers to fix it. At dinner with this Romanian and his severely depressed wife, Tarek learns about the tragic death of their son in the Israeli army. He is deeply moved by their loss and their outrage over the strange circumstances of his demise. Since then, Katz has been acting bizarre on the streets of Tel Aviv. It is his own way of expressing his anger at the Israeli army.
Across the street, Keren (Hili Yalon) works at a small shop. She has left her Orthodox family and is trying to make it on her own. Keren and Tarek, sensing they are both loners, get together for coffee and later in the day, he saves her from a beating by an outraged young Orthodox man who thinks her clothes and independence are an abomination. Despite coming from two very different worlds, Tarek and Keren find a common bond in the need to share their stories along with some moments of intimacy.
For My Father is directed by Dror Zahavi who has made the following statement about what spurred him on to make this film and what he is trying to convey:
"In November 2006, a suicide bomber blew himself up in the Carmel Market in Tel Aviv, killing four Israelis. That day I knew how necessary it is to make a film that tries to reveal the faces behind those masks worn by the kids in their 'farewell' videos. I believe that when hatred threatens to switch off sanity, it is as important as can be to make a film that shows the human beings on both sides. No monsters, just human beings with families and friends, joy and distress, people who dream to end the circle of pain and could very well live peacefully side by side."
Tarek is exposed to a new way of living in his brief time in Tel Aviv. He discovers that it is possible for an enemy to become a friend. He marvels at the sadness and madness of Katz and his wife, and he draws closer to Keren with a keen appreciation for her independent streak and her feistiness in the face of Orthodox repression. By the time Sunday arrives, Tarek has to make a hard decision about where his loyalties lie and what is most important to him. For My Father is a deeply spiritual film even though the only characters who believe zealously in God are the Orthodox Jews.
