Asia

Israel's submission for last year's International Film Award. Proof positive that the seemingly slightest plotted screenplay can still produce a shattering impact.

Asia (Alena Yiv) is a Russian woman and single mother working as a nurse in Jerusalem. Her teenage daughter Vika (Shira Haas) is in failing health but does her best to try to fit in with her free-spirited skateboarding friends. Writer-Director Ruthy Pribar never pushes the drama. Both parent and child aren't perfect and the actresses never play for audience sympathy. There is a nice accumulation of tiny details like a balky refrigerator and the story never avoids the uncomfortable truths of their lives. Yiv and Haas are exemplary, and the practically wordless final act is brilliantly played and sensitively directed and filmed.

ASIA, awkward title and all, is a beautiful film about a mother and a daughter.