Reymond Amsalem and Yehezkel Lazarov already portrayed a bad marriage set nostalgically in 1960s Jerusalem, in "Resisei Ahava" ("Obsession") two years before this movie was made. But as the man says, each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. This time, back in 1960s Jerusalem, the woman is not unwisely devoted to a philandering husband but instead is alienated and unfulfilled despite a weak husband's affection. And the point of view is primarily that of their preteen daughter, but Amsalem and Lazarov do a fine job once more and so does the child actress.
As in almost all Israeli movies set in a bygone Jerusalem (and there are a lot), the outdoors is shown very little because you can't photograph much of the real Jerusalem without catching an anachronism. But in this case, the smallness of vista serves the movie quite well because much of the content hints at the threats that people pose to those close to them-- in particular, threats concerning the targeting or withholding or sidetracking of sexual energies. Threats, and hopes as well. Things that would happen in a more commercial movie stop short of happening in this one.
Despite constant reminders of the Israeli pre-war environment with its dangers and austerity, the story would be easy to set in any country; it's universal and intelligently understated. But the colorful specifics of the period setting, plus a little bit of humor from the character played by Hanna Laszlo, help keep the movie from being a drearily stagy chamber drama.
As I left the theater I was reflecting on the similarity to another Israeli movie with a preteen protagonist, "Intimate Grammar." About that one, I wrote that the plot leads to "an episode of a kind that does not just fail to please movie audiences but turns them hostile." It doesn't send the audience home in an emotional mood that generates enthusiastic recommendations. Neither does this one, and between its appearance on the festival circuit and its commercial Israeli release, it waited two years and underwent a title change.
