broken wings (knafayim shvurot) 2002 region free dvd5 hebrew bcbc

Broken Wings (Hebrew: כנפיים שבורות‎ / Knafayim Shvurot) is a 2002 Israeli film directed by Nir Bergman and starring Orly Silbersatz Banai, Maya Maron, and Nitai Gaviratz.

Contains movie and Optional English Subtitles. No menus or extras. Regular DVD quality (Not Blu-ray etc...). Region free files sized for dvd5. Thanks, enjoy.













Plot

Israeli mother Dafna (Orly Silbersatz Banai) struggles to function after her husband dies in a freak accident. Coping with her own grief and that of her four children, she's also faced with economic obstacles that his passing has caused the family. As her relationship with her 17-year-old daughter Maya (Maya Maron) deteriorates and Maya's twin brother Yair loses touch with reality, Dafna knows she must soldier on and keep her family together.



Cast

Orly Silbersatz Banai, Maya Maron, Nitai Gaviratz, Vladimir Friedman, Dana Ivgi, Danny Niv, Daniel Magon, Eliana Magon



Broken Wings (2003)

March 12, 2004

FILM REVIEW; Dad Dies, Leaving a Caldron Of Rage, Despair and Love

By Stephen Holden

The performances in ''Broken Wings,'' Nir Bergman's aching domestic drama, are so finely meshed that the actors playing the Ullmans, an Israeli family shattered by the recent death of the head of the household, project the weary, lived-in kinship of people who have flailed in too close proximity for far too long.



The unhappy realism of ''Broken Wings,'' Mr. Bergman's feature film debut, isn't pleasant to contemplate. Although plenty of love floats among the Ullmans, so do bottled-up rage, despair and guilt, which leak out in sudden explosions of hostility and self-destruction, and the volatility of family life gives you a sense of emotional claustrophobia. If only the Ullmans could get away from one another for a little while, you think, they would be so much happier.



Dafna (Orli Zilberschatz-Banai), the financially strapped widow and mother of four, has recently taken a low-paying job as a night-shift midwife in a Haifa hospital after being bedridden for three months with depression. To hold down the job, Dafna reluctantly entrusts the care of her two youngest children, Ido (Daniel Magon), an alarmingly reckless 11-year-old, and Bahr (Eliana Magon), a sullen 6-year-old, to the oldest two, 17-year-old Maya (Maya Maron), and her 16-year-old brother, Yair (Nitai Gvirtz).



Traumatized by their father's death and furious at having to shoulder responsibilities they would not normally have to handle, Maya and Yair are less than ideal candidates for surrogate parents, but they have no choice. Maya, an aspiring singer and composer for a rock band that is moving to Tel Aviv, is itching to flee Haifa. (Her touching song for her father opens and closes the movie.) Yair, a once promising basketball player, has become an indolent high school dropout who contemptuously counters friendly overtures with his bitter, nihilistic rants about there being no God and no truth.



Yair and Maya are still considered too disruptive to be allowed back in school. Yair's latest opportunity for re-entry is foiled by his refusal to respond to the words father, fear and anger, tossed at him by a school counselor in a word association test.

Maya rebels against Dafna by repeatedly ignoring or forgetting her instructions. When one of her small acts of forgetfulness precipitates a grave new crisis, Dafna snaps. One afternoon, Ido, unsupervised, pursues his favorite daredevil pastime, jumping into empty swimming pools. This time he hits his head and goes into a coma.



The movie's sense of emotional claustrophobia is underscored by a complete lack of interest in Middle Eastern politics, or in anything outside the troubled family unit. ''Broken Wings,'' which opens today in New York, doesn't have a word to say about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, nor does it give a sense of the existence of that conflict as background noise in the Ullmans' lives.



Though incisive, the screenplay (by Mr. Bergman) resorts to some coy strategies to drum up a modicum of suspense. Although we're told of the father's death fairly early in the film, the actual circumstances aren't revealed until near the end. We also wait to discover whether Ido remains comatose.



For all the sourness and impatience that erupt out of its characters' misery, ''Broken Wings'' makes you believe in the Ullmans and in the power of their mutual love to see them through. In the end, it suggests, given half a chance, we go on.