In Broken Wings, a woman and her four children figure out how to keep it together after a death in the family.
The mother, Dafna, (Orly Silbersatz Banai) has gone back to work as a midwife and appears to be coping, but she isn't.
Her 17-year-old daughter (Maya Maron) is a budding singer/songwriter who feels overwhelmed by the family duties she's had to assume.
Her brother Yair (Nitai Gvirtz) has dropped out of school and now works handing out flyers in the subway -- dressed in a mouse costume.
The two younger children suffer most. Ido (Daniel Magon) is 11 and tired of being bullied at school. So he doesn't go. He's determined to film himself performing superman-like stunts. And little Bahr (Eliana Magon) is all alone on her first day of kindergarten.
Everyone in the story lives with fear and sadness and the older children must also deal with guilt and anger. What makes Broken Wings so moving is that the Ullmans are presented as an ordinary family -- the kids fight, the car won't start most mornings, mom has an extra shift at work, someone has to make the sandwiches for school.
Only when tragedy threatens to strike again do the members of this family snap out of their collective trance.
Broken Wings is set in Haifa. The emotional detail of the film shows a very different Israel from the one we've become used to seeing on the news, but the film is not without a political level -- the father's death and the state of those left behind can certainly be interpreted. The film, meanwhile, is a huge winner at film festivals in Berlin, Jerusalem and Tokyo. It's one of those small features that sneaks up on you and stays with you long after you leave the theatre.
Broken Wings is in Hebrew with English subtitles.
(This film is rated 14-A)
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