This is a generic, but likeable family drama set in Israel. It describes how a woman and her children struggle to cope with the death of their husband and father. Each caught up in their own grief, they fail to recognise each other's pain until a second, jarring crisis jolts them out of their self-absorption.
The film's main strengths are its setting and its cast. It is set in Haifa in Israel, and this makes it slightly more interesting than it might have been if it were set in Anytown, USA. The use of authentic urban Israeli locations gives the film a realistic feel, and makes it simultaneously drab and exotic, which is helpful as the action and conflicts brought out in the script are fairly predictable. The script eschews any mention of the region's wider tensions, which is probably a good thing - if the lost father had been killed in a terrorist atrocity,or kidnapped by Hamas, it would have given the film a ridiculously melodramatic edge. As it is, his death is touchingly futile, underscoring the (mercifully) lightly stated message that people's true value should be appreciated when they are around.
The small cast are very good, particularly Orly Silbersatz Bana as the mother, Dafna, still reeling from the loss of her husband and so locked up in her own grief that she can't help or support her children, preferring to escape to the numbing urgency of her job as a nurse. Maya Maron is also very good, though her role, as the elder daughter who's dreams and hopes are being crushed by the weight of responsibilities suddenly dumped upon her, is a bit too pat and cliched. Maron makes you believe in her character's grief and resentment, even if her budding career as a singer is not as convincing. Some likeable, non-cutsie child actors help as well.
The film's significant weakness has already been indicated - it is very generic. Tropes established early on are revisited at the end in time honoured fashion. The tensions, while given some bite by the cast, are predictably laid out, and the combination of Maya's nascent pop career with the crisis overwhelming the family is straight out of Scrpitwriting 101. But that's all bearable. What's more annoying is the too-quirky brother, Yair, who responds to his father's death by withdrawing into childish behaviour, cod-philosophy and wearing a gigantic mouse. I suspect there is meant to be some significance intended here, but if so, I'm refusing to see it as it would spoil what was otherwise a likeable enough little film.
*
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