Broken Wings
|
List Price: Our Price: $3.94 You Save: $16.05 (80%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $0.86 (click here) Category: DVD See more DVD releases |
|---|
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
Movie Reviews of Broken Wings
Movie Review: Superb exploration of a family's grief
Summary: 5 Stars
Wonderfully uplifting tale of a family fighting to come to grips with the unexpected death of the father. The film captures brilliantly the intricacies of family life. I was riveted from start to finish. Keep your big budget blockbusters! Please give me lots more beautiful small gems like this one.Movie Review: Amazing film
Summary: 5 Stars
this movie is soooooooo great. ya'll should check it out. it's so sad, and emotional. u can really understand how the family feels. i loved this movie. i recomend to everybody. and by the way Israel Kicks AssMovie Review: moving family drama
Summary: 4 Stars
"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 as 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.
Movie Review: It is and it isn't - Israel
Summary: 4 Stars
For people who are not Israeli and saw the film ( previous reviewers ) they wonder how life in Israel is so grim and they wonder why there is an Israeli movie without politics. Well the second wonder is easy , there are many movies and songs about Israel and Israeli life without politics and conflict , that hold even laughter. Not everything in Israel is about conflict and war , that is a news distortion. Just like saying you can't enjoy new York city because a news clip showed a mugging in Central Park at night. However , the other point , how grim life in Israel must be. Well I lived in Haifa, the location of the movie. Haifa is one of the most beautiful cities in the world, Sadat of Egypt visited Haifa on his trip to Israel. You would never know from this movie - on purpose. Actually , any scenic views of Haifa were shot at night, so you couldn't tell. Thus , so too with the Grim Israeli . They aren't so grim even though that is not to say they do not suffer politically, socially, or economically. Rather , from the news, we do see that Israelis do overcome their hardships in the end. And maybe that is why Israelis gave the movie an award of best film. Because , when looking at the movie , you feel there are people in a worse situation than yours and even survive. Seems to me like an Israeli movie version of ANNIE
"The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow." While the movie is an emotional tear jerker, it's not really , real. If you want a deeper view of Israeli life, check out a new book on Israel I authored Leaving Home, Going Home, Returning Home: A Hebrew American's Sojourn in the Land of Israel
Movie Review: So subtle, so moving, so good it takes your breath away
Summary: 4 Stars
Two of the best foreign films I've seen this year (Waiting For Happiness, I'm Not Scared) have slipped under the critical and commercial radar and been seen by far too few people. After seeing director Nir Bergman's strikingly honest, refreshingly unpretentious Broken Wings, I'm ready to make that three. Wings doesn't have a very original story - a family, consisting of a mother and her four children, must cope with the sudden loss of their father - but what the movie does with that basis is what makes the film remarkable.
Not one time, for the first 45 minutes of this 82 minute film, are words even similar to "My dad died" even mentioned. We just see mother Dafna and kids Maya, Yair, Ido, and Bahr simply living their simple lives and doing their best to displace their sorrow. Wings never dives into pretentious artfulness or even melodrama when another tragic occurrence rocks the family, it is so grounded in its aim and execution. And I was deeply struck by the dialogue as well; the characters speak and deal with situations of the present, not woefully lingering on the past. I was reminded of The Station Agent, watching this movie. Both films have deeply sorrowful undercurrents to their narratives, yet each has the control and precision to do what people would do, not characters in a movie about living after tragedy. The title Broken Wings is a metaphor in itself, but like the movie itself, it's not heavy-handed in the least. GRADE: A-