In this bitter-sweet romantic comedy from Israel, Zaza (Lior Ashkenazi), a 31-year-old philosophy student at Tel Aviv university, is torn between two women: his divorcee lover and his overbearing mother who is desperate to marry him off.

Zaza's parents Yasha (Moni Moshonov) and Lily (Lili Kosashvili), are distraught that their 31-year-old son, who has such fine prospects, cannot find himself a young wife. Like any good Georgian traditionalists they do all they can. The film opens with a hilarious arranged meeting between an eligible teenager from another family and Zaza. We learn it is one of many such meetings, although judging by the cringeing awkwardness between the gathered clans it could have been the first.

Zaza goes along with this facade to satisfy his parents, but really he is not interested. He has a lover, an older woman of Moroccan origin, Judith. What's more she's a divorcee with a six-year-old daughter, which makes her altogether unacceptable to Zaza's conservative parents, although Zaza's dad admits it will be tough trying to untangle his son from a woman "with such a great arse". The scene is set for an emotional tug-of-war between family and lover.

Although you could describe this as comedy, it cuts too close to the bone to be that alone. Some early touches, for example, a scene where a small sack containing the foreskin of a young boy is surreptiously deposited in the right place - for luck - are wickedly funny.

The awkwardness of the courtship process, the gilded, ostentatious interiors that scream kitsch and the godfatherlike shenanigans and family intrigue also bring plenty of brittle humour.

But writer-director Dover Kosashvili, who apparently based the script on personal experience, is clearly too close to his subject-matter to let it be laughed away so easily. A darker vein emerges, as the film moves on, that wipes the smile from your face. Nothing wrong with that, if only the pivotal character Zaza didn't turn out to be so poorly fleshed out, with so many question marks left hovering about him.

As it is the women have the best parts: the striking-looking Ronit Elkabetz as Judith gives a performance of great vitality and emotional strength and Lili Kosashvili as the wilful and corpulent mother is both domineering and yet not unwholly sympathetic. The ending does leave you unfulfilled, but these are performances to enjoy in a memorable ensemble piece.