Till Mourning

Elliot, an Orthodox Jewish teenager, heads off to college fresh off a year studying in Yeshiva in Israel. His future looks bright with his “perfect” girlfriend, Jess, in tow, and the two of them already dreaming of marriage and a family. However, as Elliot’s gap year winds down, his best friend Matthew is murdered when terrorists blow up a bar that Elliot, Matthew, and Jess were attending. Adding to the complications is Elliot’s fallout with a boy he grew up with and future classmate at Princeton, Charlie, who has become disillusioned by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and joined the advocacy group Students for Justice in Palestine.

Elliot arrives in Princeton, embroiled in conflict. He’s depressed about Matthew’s death, angry at Charlie’s abandonment of him, tense about his relationship with Jess, and his parents’ objections that they are moving too fast. When Charlie shows up at the local Hillel for Friday night dinner, Elliot’s set off, confronting Charlie about his hypocritical ways. The conflict ends unresolved, with Elliot sinking further into himself, becoming increasingly isolated from Jess.

When Elliot’s parents shut down their marriage plans, Elliot reluctantly agrees to Jess’s secret plan to get engaged behind their back. But one night Elliot, reminiscing about his time with Matthew, gets drunk and stumbles through campus looking to take his anger out on someone. Instead he meets Selma, a British-Lebanese girl, who takes him in and nurses him back to health. When Elliot wakes up, he instinctively punches Selma’s friend, Yusuf, feeling a bit of racist PTSD, and leaves with Selma, who talks about her family’s tragic history.

Jess, wanting to surprise Elliot at his dorm, takes a train down, but finds only Elliot’s roommate Chad and an empty bottle of Vodka. Chad and Jess go out in search of Elliot, and find him walking along with Selma. After some initial awkward tension, Elliot comforts Jess and reassures her about the strength of their relationship. But after a talk with Chad, Elliot decides he needs to get out more, and agrees to go to a party with classmate, Debby, the night before his planned engagement.

At the party he sees Charlie, which induces a flashback to the night of Matthew’s death and causes Elliot to faint. When he wakes up, he confronts Charlie again, and the two go outside to fight it out. But Charlie, totally wasted, passes out, and Elliot instead carries him back to the Hillel, where he goes into psycho-mode, shoving Charlie into a closet, threatening him, and screaming at him for being a traitor. Charlie begs for mercy, and tells Elliot that Matthew’s death was actually Elliot’s fault, as he convinced Matthew to go the bar that night against Matthew’s own judgement. Elliot’s only further enraged and decides to kill Charlie, carving a swastika into his chest for his “Anti-Semitic” behavior.

The next night, Elliot heads off to his engagement after speaking to the police about the previous night’s incident. But after interrogating Debby, they discover Elliot’s guilt and send out an APB for him. Elliot, unaware, hops into an uber driven by an ex-cop who enjoys listening to police radio. When Elliot’s name is called, the driver veers off course, determined to bring Elliot in.

At a traffic light, Elliot jumps out of the car, and escapes to a nearby convenience store. But soon after he’s arrested and taken to jail, still in possession of the ring. Jess, meanwhile, arrives at the lake where they had their first date, ready for the greatest day of her life. Instead, she finds the spot empty, and soon after receives a phone call, revealing the news.

Years later, Jess goes to visit Elliot in jail and returns the ring that the cops took off Elliot upon his arrest. Jess returns to her husband and kids and drives off. Elliot stares into the ring’s box, dreaming about what could have been.