Wednesday 11th November 2020
10am, 12 noon, 2pm, 5pm, 7.30pm
Directed by Itay Tal
Drama
1hr 20mins
Israel
Hebrew/subtitles
This film examines a parent’s projection of her own failed dreams onto a talented child. Anat, a pianist, is obsessed with living up to the standards her father, himself a virtuoso, demands. We see her hands at the keyboard, her face as she concentrates, and then her feet as her water breaks and a puddle forms. Anat’s baby is born deaf, and so her ambition that her child reach the musical heights she never could is stymied. At the hospital she actually tries to swap her baby for one who can hear.
A few years later, the son, Idan, is shown not only to be able to hear but also to be a prodigy. At a dinner he wows his extended family on the Steinway. Anat’s face shows quiet admiration that morphs into something deliberately unreadable.
This is storytelling which is as enigmatic as it is compelling. Not surprisingly, the use of music throughout is superb. Wendy Ide, Screen International