Nora's Will marks the debut feature by writer and director Mariana Chenillo. The film was the winner of seven Ariel awards (Mexico's top film honors) including "Best Picture of the Year." Such praise and adulation is out of the ordinary given the delicate religious themes of the drama which revolves around the suicide of a Jewish woman and the responses of her ex-husband, an atheist; her son, a loyal Jew active in his community; a Catholic maid; and a rabbi with conservative views on tradition. The serious subject matter enhances the conflicts as the diverse characters try to express their beliefs. In addition, there are many comic moments that convey the tenderness and vulnerability of all human beings in the presence of death as the Great Mystery.
José (Fernando Luján), Nora's ex-husband, lives across the street from her and is the first to discover that, at the age of 63, she has ended her life with an overdose of sleeping pills. It turns out that she had tried and failed to commit suicide many times before this. At her apartment, José plays host to family members, friends, and strangers. There is a conservative rabbi (Max Kerlow), who explains that although Jewish tradition requires burial within 24 hours of death, this rule is superseded by the celebration of Passover and then the Sabbath — all of which combine to require a five-day wait till a funeral service can be done for Nora. Moisés (Enrique Arreola), a convert to Judaism, arrives to say prayers over the body and then Reubén (Ari Brickman), Jose's son and a friend of the rabbi, arrives with his wife and two bubbly daughters who are curious to see the body of their dead grandmother — shrouded in dry ice to preserve it. Aunt Leah (Verónica Langer) shows up and serves as the protector of Nora's secrets. José is very disturbed when he finds a picture of his former wife with another man while they were still married. Meanwhile, Nora's housekeeper (Angelina Peláez) starts cooking the Passover Meal from the labeled dishes in the refrigerator.
Nora's Will offers a richly human story involving many of the universal issues surrounding death — grief, loss, and religious differences. A fuss erupts when José offers the rabbi a sausage pizza and arranges for a Christian funeral home to send flowers and a large cross, to be displayed in the apartment. Further religious animosity comes to the fore when the rabbi decides to opt out of the ceremony since suicides are not allowed to buried in a Jewish cemetery. Left with the challenge of finding a way of giving Nora a proper exit from this world, José feels that everything that has happened is a result of his ex-wife's valiant attempt, even in death, to draw him fully and completely back into her orb of influence. Is it love or manipulation? Every viewer will have to decide that for him or herself.
