Knafayim Shvurot

"Broken Wings (Knafayim Shvurot)" is a frank, involving portrait of a family coping with grief and stress.

Even more than such films as "Ordinary People," debut writer/director Nir Bergman has a sure touch in showing us the pressures and responses of a full range of individual family members, from the depressed working mother to her children -- five year old daughter, ten year old son, and and their teen brother and sister.

Within very realistic crowded and complicated living, working, school, and peer friendship environments, we see each as distinct individuals with guilts, needs, issues, and talents, and as the dependent members of a family unit dealing with past and present pain and crises, including through music.

I don't know the technicalities of the film stock, but the grittiness of the cinematography contributes to the naturalism, as well as the un-Hollywood, un-pretty look of the actors.

As an Israeli film what also adds to how touching it is is its non-political, non-geographically-necessary-specific content. This is just a beautiful human story of love and responsibility.

While the opening credits are bilingual Hebrew and English, the closing credits, annoyingly, are not.

There seems to be a whole genre of films recently ,the theme of which is young people's daunting search for purpose in life in a world where external sources of values are no longer accepted. I am thinking of "Garden State," "I Heart Huckabees," "Closer " etc. The consensus, so to speak, if these movies are to be taken as a mirror of reality, is that there is no purpose to be found, and the only grounds for relating to other human beings at all is sexual attraction, or its concomitant sexual competition. In fact, I watched this film and "Thirteen" together, and found them strangely parallel. I mention all this because Knafayim Shvurot is different from all the others in a small but fundamental respect: here the characters have not quite given up the search. Perhaps this reflects a difference between Israeli culture which, jaded though it is, is indisputably younger, and American culture which seems to be declining into both hedonism and vicious religiosity. I didn't realize it while I was watching, but was somehow not surprised to notice afterward that the "family" of characters is played by a real-life family. I couldn't help wondering how the experience affected them...

Maya is a teenager who has hopes of someday having a better life through her singing. However, on the night of her first gig she is called home to look after her young brother and sister while her mother goes to a night-shift at the hospital. This is the pattern of Maya's life since her father died about 9 months before – her mother Dafna never seems to be around, her elder brother seems to be on a downward spiral of depression while the youngest children seem adrift and distant.

Whenever I sit down to watch a film that comes from Israel, it is tempting to assume that the film will deal with or at least touch on the troubles there. That was the case with this film and I was pleasantly surprised that this was actually a drama about teenage relationships and difficulties. The plot focuses on Maya but draws in the other characters into a story that is rather low-key and small but manages to be involving and rather moving. It's not perfect of course and some viewers may find it's pace a little slow and the insular nature of the drama to be a little folded in on itself (especially if you expected the wider conflicts to be drawn into it in some way). As a teenage drama this is rather touching and is an enjoyable little drama that is based on a well written script.

The performances are also very good and there aren't really any weak links in this regard. Maron is well cast and her Maya is interesting and sympathetic. Banar has a more difficult role but does it well and keeps the audience with her. Gaviratz is good even if his character is the most difficult to get to know; the younger children are also good and rise above the usual cute performances that Hollywood seems to draw from kids on a regular basis. The film paints a small family drama on a little canvas and the good cast are a major part of producing a story that really engages.

Overall this is an enjoyable little family drama that is quite involving and quite touching. The characters are well written and well delivered by a roundly good cast. Short and bittersweet and well worth a watch if you can find it – everywhere in the world there are families and teenagers and everywhere in the world they have conflict.

"Broken Wings" is a poignant, slice-of-life drama about an Israeli family's coming to terms with the death of their father nine months earlier. The widow, Dafna, is a 43 year-old mother of four who works endless hours as a midwife at the local hospital, both to earn money to support her family as well as to avoid having to face the reality of the tragic loss she has suffered. For while she is a loving, devoted mother, she seems unable to provide the guidance and solace her children need in this time of incomprehensible grief and suffering. Thus, the children are left to cope more or less on their own as best they can - and this on top of all the problems young people face just doing the ordinary, day-to-day business of growing up. Her oldest son, Yair, has responded to his father's death by dropping out of high school and adopting a fatalistic philosophy, declaring that life is nothing more than a series of random events that mean nothing against the backdrop of an immensely vast, impersonal universe. The oldest daughter, 17 year-old Maya, has hopes of becoming a successful rock musician, but finds herself having to carry the burden of raising the two younger children while their absent mother spends most of her waking hours at work. The two youngsters, Ido and Bahr, cope with the loss of their father and the inadvertent neglect from their overworked mother in various and heartbreaking ways. The narrative is paced in such a way that we learn about the life of this family only through bits and pieces of carefully revealed information, with each scene exposing more and more about the people and their situation until ultimately a full picture emerges. In fact, it is a good half hour at least before we even know that the father is dead.

The movie takes a very low-keyed approach to its subject matter, showing, in an understated fashion, the devastating effect the death of a parent can have on a family unit. The film is filled with lovely little moments of humor, warmth and insight that draw us deeply into the drama. We see how each of the various characters responds to the situation and to each other, watching as the feelings of guilt, resentment and recrimination bubble to the surface. As a second crisis hits the family, a whole host of long-dormant feelings and emotions finally break out in open conflict. Yet, as with a wound that needs to be cauterized before it can heal, this second trauma proves to be the rupture the family needs to begin its process of recovery. The amazing thing is that writer/director Nir Bergman is able to do all this in an economical 82-minute running time. Yet, even with that limited length, the filmmaker captures the texture of the family members' daily lives through an impressive array of sharply drawn subsidiary characters who play an integral part in the central drama.

Bergman has also been blessed with first-rate actors in the primary roles. Orly Silbersatz Banai as Dafna, Maya Maron as Maya, and Nitai Gaviratz as Yair deliver, beautifully realistic, heartfelt performances. The other cast members are all excellent as well.

"Broken Wings" is a small, overlooked gem that gets to the heart of what it means to be a family. It would be a shame for anyone to miss it.

I fell in love with the trailer every time I heard the singing, and smiled at the video recording segment where Dafna was told not to say she's 43 with 4 kids but say 39, and ended up saying she has 39 kids. I was most eager when I finally get to see "Broken Wings." It was a filmic experience full of human, family emotions - those ever anguish-ridden teen growing pains (conflicts and raptures) - I was quite pleased, tear-jerker and all.

Broken Wings, aka K'Nafayim Shvurot (2002), a film from Israel in Hebrew with subtitles, is the debut feature of writer-director Nir Bergman. It may seem like yet another movie about teens, mother and kids in a struggling household - somehow there's a different tone and humanity level that's most warm and welcoming in feeling. Good story, thoughtful plot with trying crisis, and heartfelt performances all round. And the music - especially the song Maya sings, the lyrics and the guitar rhythm I really felt akin to.

It's a close-knit family - it shows: the dialog between mother and daughter, the interactions among teen sister and brother, elder brother and youngest sister, brother to brother, mother to sons - there's a lot going on and not without sprinkles of humor (and playfulness) injected in between. It's a poignant script Bergman delivered. And what a cast - each of the family members was portrayed with such nuance. Orli Zilverschatz-Banay is Dafna the mother, a central tour de force. Equally matched is the strong performance by Maya Maron as the daughter, whose sadness and bottled-up self-blame became a huge chip on her shoulder - struggling with her musical talent (composing and singing) and trying to be vulnerably strong ('I can take care of myself' persona) as a responsible daughter/sister/student/band member - life without Dad is so tough, or is it? Mother doesn't care, doesn't have time to love me, is it so? Ido, the younger son, reminds me of Edward Yang's "Yi Yi" - also a young boy on his own while the grown-ups and siblings exist in a different world. Daniel Magon plays Ido and Eliana Magon as the little sister Bahr - the pair had a street crossing scene with just as much tension felt watching their performances together. Nitai Gvirtz portrayed teen brother Yair, who's a character unto himself. Vladimir Friedman is Dr. Valentin, in the tension relieving role of Dafna's colleague, provided breather and smiles to the audience as well as the strung-out working mother of four.

Nir Bergman took the time to show us the different character developments - not shying away from confronting situations or gutsy parental-teenage tensions. "Broken Wings" depicts how a family unit copes with grief and how crisis unites, coming through with strength and renewed understanding. It's a worthy family drama. We're fortunate to have effective subtitles by Suzy de Lowe. Bravo to Sony Pictures Classics for the steady support in distributing gems of small independent foreign films.

An observation: the cause of death was given in a low key manner - nothing political about it as it seems to be a possible natural happening. Hence the central energy is more focused on the mother and daughter relationship - such wisdom in plot progression choices. If you're interested in a film that has a bit more political tone, try the Palestinian film by writer-director Elia Suleiman, "Divine Intervention" (2002) aka Yadon Ilaheyya, in Arabic and Hebrew with English subtitles - it's quietly political, pathos with poetic tenderness.