Living through a death
This film offers the genuine raw emotion and family dysfunction that results from the death of a teenagers' father, but also the healing that comes with family reconciliation and the kids' gradual maturation. This film is a triumph of art, depicting as it does so accurately, the triumph of the human soul over tragic events that individuals cannot control, but by joining forces with the family unit, in love.

* A prime example of the renaissance in Israeli film *
While Israeli theatre has greatly deteriorated in quality over the last 20 years, Israeli film has blossomed, led by Israeli filmmakers influenced by the success of independent film in the US. Rather than copying Hollywood, these filmmakers aim to create Sundance type films with a clear Israeli sensibility. This is a wonderful slice-of-life film and an interesting look at the life of the working poor in Israel.

Impressive
A father who died of an freak accident and the aftermath of that was a family that was torn apart by its sheer inability to deal with his demise. Perhaps, the grieving process had never taken place. The single mother was working overtime in the ER to sustain the livelihood of the movie, the eldest daughter who had to forgo her dream to become an accomplished song writer and a singer to look after her younger siblings, the brother who hid himself behind a mouse costume to distribute phamplets around the subway when he used to be an accomplished student and a basketball player at school, a younger brother who had this obsession of videoing himself jumping into an empty swimming pool & a little sister who was craving for attention from her mum who is hardly at home. Yet, another freak accident compelled them to reflect about lives and somehow, reconciled the dysfunctional family into one unit once again. Powerful and touching and an indie movie that shall not be missed.

A good movie
This is a good movie. The story of a family 's struggling to go on after the father has been killed gives a close- up look at Israeli 'shechunah' neighborhood life. The characters are believable and likeable even as they struggle in their odd ways to survive. The caretaking sister, and the dreaming weak brother who does risky things just to prove himself, are placed in a very realistic setting and background. I did not especially like or understand the ending which seemed to me somewhat forced and melodramatic.
But on the whole this was one of the finer Israeli films I have seen.

A lot of people loved this film - I'm not one of them
Oh, I know that everyone who loved this film is going to be very unhappy with me for not loving it. So maybe it was the mood I was in, or maybe it's my taste in films.

This Israeli film (won the Israeli equivalent of the Oscar, as I understand it, so it has something to do with the way Israelis understand themselves, I think) tells the story of a family of 5 struggling to live without the father, who died unexpectedly. The mother is clinically depressed, as nearly as I could tell, and wants to sleep all the time. She works as a midwife, which means working shifts, and a lot of the childcare responsibility falls on the oldest daughter, because the oldest son is no help at all. This daughter is not happy about not being able to have her own life and resents the situation she's in. The youngest two children are not getting enough of their mother's time and attention, who is too busy working and/or depressed (sleeps when she gets home) to give them what they need. Money is tight. The car has trouble starting.

It's just so grim. It's supposed to be a hopeful film, but if that's hopeful, I'm glad I'm not living in Israel. I had to agree with reviewers who commented on how apolitical it is -- this could have been filmed in Europe. There are no Palestinians, no soldiers, no bombs, and no politics. It's very odd, in my opinion.

But what kept me from liking this film very much is that it is just too grim. Just looking at the mother's face made me depressed. Way too little happiness. I can understand why the oldest son is so nihilistic if that is truly what his life is like. I hope it isn't like that.