Color, NR (mature themes, language, nudity, sexual situations), 100 min., DVD only $29.95, Hebrew with English subtitles
DVD: featurette
Street: Jan. 3, Prebook: Dec. 6
First Run: L, June 2005, <$1 mil.
Cast: Ronit Elkabetz, Dana Ivgy, Meshar Cohen, Katia Zimbris
Director: Keren Yedaya
KINO
Story Line: Or (Ivgy), a Tel Aviv high-school girl who works at a neighborhood restaurant to help make ends meet, tries to look after her middle-age mother, Ruthie (Elkabetz), a prostitute whose self-destructive choices keep them marginalized and affect her daughter's burgeoning romance.
Bottom Line: A mildly depressing coming-of-age story with heavy moralistic undertones, Or has been directed in a minimalist style reminiscent of cinema verité at its most effective. That doesn't always work to the film's advantage, however; using long takes of dreary scenes certainly isn't a formula for keeping home viewers fully engaged in a story. But director Yedaya succeeds at his most important task: making the complex, precarious relationship between Or and Ruthie poignant and believable. The mother-daughter interaction is the emotional core of the movie, and performers Elkabetz and Ivgy nail their characters perfectly under Yedaya's guidance. There's an underlying preachiness to the story that some viewers—especially males—might find off-putting, but the feminist filmmaker's heavy-handed social commentary doesn't detract from the power of her central theme. Those who like small-scale, naturalistic dramas in foreign settings will find Or very much to their liking. In mainstream venues, its appeal will be strictly a hit-or-miss proposition.
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