A strong personification of a woman's empowerment, Anat is determined to achieve her goals at any cost. She had been on a long journey to find the right place for her genius pianist son, a master musician whom she had been teaching since he was born. In the opening scene, Anat is performing herself on stage, when her water breaks. Right after labor, she is devastated with the news her son is deaf. She then commits a crime, exchanging the babies, and making sure she will have a healthy one coming home with her. A bold take on the power of a woman's control and a mother's ambition, first-time director Itay Tal conceives a thought-provoking and seductive film that stirs up controversy in many topics: the fact someone's talent could be related to genetics or early manipulation of practices and ideas; a subtly justification of a woman's desperate actions; the role of an absent male dominance; the pressures on a child whose childhood is evidently stolen due to adults' self interests. Presenting this fierce and audacious female character, caught on a reckless actions with permanent consequences, actress Naama Preis gives a superb performance, marked by intense complexity and mystery. She won the Best Actress Award at Jerusalem Film Festival for this incredibly unpredictable role. Observational and highly dramatic, Itay Tal is a filmmaker to watch.
6 Reviews
Great performances and compelling story
theojhyman11 November 2019
If you can get past the disturbing first few minutes, then you're in for a compelling story of a mother obsessed with turning her son into a piano protege and will stop at nothing to achieve her goals. You're left wanting more, but I guess that's what makes the film even more memorable. Great direction and full of promise!
A fable, taut but a little detached
Nozz12 November 2019
The god of the piano is a false god, and we meet a family that is something of a fanatical cult in the service of that god-- musicians to whom little else is important. Anat, the protagonist, is a pianist whose hands are prematurely unsteady. She doesn't always do the right thing, but we can sympathize with her because of her plight, because she's pretty, and because the other characters (other than her son) are all rather peripheral. Anat's husband goes away on business, but exactly what does he do for a living? Did I miss it, or does it go unmentioned?
There isn't much of a sense of place. Many other Israeli movies are explicitly and colorfully set in a particular city. Maybe what motivates them is municipal funding or assistance, but still I think a story that is moored to a specific setting is usually the more interesting for it.
On the other hand, maybe the vagueness of the setting is intentional. Anat doesn't care very much where she is, or who she's with. At least for most of the film, she has no friend to talk to, so that the scriptwriter, who is also the director and editor, sets himself the challenge of explaining her to us (to the extent that he wants to) without relying on her to explain herself. The movie makes the point that the only person she can confide in is deaf.
So the movie proceeds with something of the spareness of a fable, and with something of the inevitability, but also with something of the detachment. I think the only jarring moment in the movie is when Anat has occasion to weep in disappointment. She gives off sharp cries that sound more like physical pain and that, by their strangeness, take us out of the scene rather than drawing us in. Nonetheless, the performance was good for a Best Actress award, so I shouldn't be too quick with even a small complaint.
There isn't much of a sense of place. Many other Israeli movies are explicitly and colorfully set in a particular city. Maybe what motivates them is municipal funding or assistance, but still I think a story that is moored to a specific setting is usually the more interesting for it.
On the other hand, maybe the vagueness of the setting is intentional. Anat doesn't care very much where she is, or who she's with. At least for most of the film, she has no friend to talk to, so that the scriptwriter, who is also the director and editor, sets himself the challenge of explaining her to us (to the extent that he wants to) without relying on her to explain herself. The movie makes the point that the only person she can confide in is deaf.
So the movie proceeds with something of the spareness of a fable, and with something of the inevitability, but also with something of the detachment. I think the only jarring moment in the movie is when Anat has occasion to weep in disappointment. She gives off sharp cries that sound more like physical pain and that, by their strangeness, take us out of the scene rather than drawing us in. Nonetheless, the performance was good for a Best Actress award, so I shouldn't be too quick with even a small complaint.
a kick
Kirpianuscus26 October 2020
I saw it as admirable portrait of motherhood and teen life . Admirable performances, realistic image of ambition, bitter lesson about status of boomerang of sacrifices to a god , great for few profound beautiful scenes and giving the real fair end, it is more a kick to reflect than the Israeli film using familiar recipe. And it is a great virtue that.
Monstrous Mother
billyb5213 February 2020
Warning: Spoilers
This is a story of pathological mother. She switches her deaf baby for another baby in the newborn nursery. She trains him to be a concert pianist to please her demanding famous pianist father. She has an affair with a famous pianist to access his musical knowledge for her son. When the boy doesn't make into a prestigious musical school, she searched for her real son. Good grief. I thought Tony Soprsno's mother scary.
A family of musicians, what to do with a deaf newborn?
TxMike29 June 2021
Warning: Spoilers
I found this on DVD from my public library. It is an Israeli movie, it has English subtitles.
She is an accomplished concert pianist. As the movie opens during a performance, camera above the keys showing the hands. Then we see her legs and a liquid running down. Is she just nervous? No, her water broke and the baby is coming.
In the hospital she becomes desperate upon finding her newborn son is deaf and may never hear. How can he become a top class musician? She does two unforgivable things when she decides to switch identifying wrist bands ... she abandons her own newborn son and she steals another family's newborn son.
The movie fast forwards to where the boy is 12 and becoming an accomplished pianist and composer, the mom is emotionally struggling to deal with her decisions that no one else knows about. It is magnified when she visits the school for the deaf and catches a glimpse of the son she had abandoned.
The value in the movie is that it tells a story that is plausible but as far as I can tell never told before. I didn't like all the choices the filmmakers made but overall I am glad I watched. Good performances all around.
She is an accomplished concert pianist. As the movie opens during a performance, camera above the keys showing the hands. Then we see her legs and a liquid running down. Is she just nervous? No, her water broke and the baby is coming.
In the hospital she becomes desperate upon finding her newborn son is deaf and may never hear. How can he become a top class musician? She does two unforgivable things when she decides to switch identifying wrist bands ... she abandons her own newborn son and she steals another family's newborn son.
The movie fast forwards to where the boy is 12 and becoming an accomplished pianist and composer, the mom is emotionally struggling to deal with her decisions that no one else knows about. It is magnified when she visits the school for the deaf and catches a glimpse of the son she had abandoned.
The value in the movie is that it tells a story that is plausible but as far as I can tell never told before. I didn't like all the choices the filmmakers made but overall I am glad I watched. Good performances all around.
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