Knafayim Shvurot (2002)

User Rating:

7.7/10   

Director:

Nir Bergman

Writer:

Nir Bergman (writer)

Release Date:

24 October 2002 (Israel)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

Daphne and her four children try to cope with the abrupt death of husband/father. As the family seems to fall apart, a sudden incident gives them a chance to heal their 'broken wings'.

Plot Keywords:

Death | Children | Musician | Tragedy Child | Dead Father

Awards:

15 wins & 2 nominations

Cast

Orly Silbersatz Banai	...	Dafna Ulman
Maya Maron	...	Maya Ulman
Daniel Magon	...	Ido Ulman
Nitai Gvirtz	...	Yair Ulman
Eliana Magon	...	Bahr Ulman
Vladimir Friedman	...	Dr. Valentin Goldman
Dana Ivgy	...	Iris
Yarden Bar-Kochba	...	Flora, School Counselor
Danny Niv	...	Yoram (as Danny "mooki" Niv)
Orit Boger	...	Teacher
Nimrod Cohen	...	Gaga
Eitan Green	...	The Father
Martin Umanski	...	Video Photographer
Shira Vilenski
Lobo Wizner	...	Band member

Also Known As:

Broken Wings (UK) (literal English title)

MPAA:

Rated R for some language, brief nudity and drug use.

Runtime:

87 min | Switzerland:84 min

Country:

Israel

Language:

Hebrew

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Singapore:PG | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Philippines:PG-13 | Switzerland:12 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:12 (canton of Vaud) | UK:15 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Carmelit Subway, Haifa, Israel

Company:

Israeli Film Fund

Trivia:

Ido and Bahr are played by real-life brother and sister Daniel and Eliana Magon.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Noodle (2007)

Soundtrack:

Sratim Metzuyarim

Touching Portrait of a Broken Family

"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.