Broken Wings

Starring:Orly Silbersatz Banai, Maya Maron, Daniel Magon, Nitai Gvirtz, Eliana Magon, Vladimir Friedman, Dana Ivgy, Yarden Bar-Kochba, Danny Niv, Orit Boger, Nimrod Cohen, Eitan Green, Martin Umanski, Shira Vilansky, Lobo Wizner, Dror Yakar, Eli Zulta
Director: Nir Bergman
Studio: Sony Pictures
Product Type: DVD

Amazon.com

An uncommonly powerful film, Broken Wings captures a family in mid-disintegration: A midwife at an Israeli hospital struggles to hold her children together in the wake of their father's death. Maya, a gaunt, pale young woman, aspires to win a band contest; Ido, a boy bullied at school, tries to film himself jumping from heights; Yair, a teenage boy, wallows in the meaninglessness of existence as he hands out flyers, dressed in a mouse costume. This may sound tedious or excruciating, but it's given vivid life by an incredible cast and a humor that manages to be absurd and a little sad at the same time. The movie embraces its characters with a profound empathy; it's hard to imagine that anyone could watch Broken Wings and not be deeply moved by the end. Not surprisingly, the movie has won numerous awards at film festivals around the world. --Bret Fetzer

Customer Reviews:

A good movie .......2006-06-04

This is a good movie. The story of a family 's struggling to go on after the father has been killed gives a close- up look at Israeli 'shechunah' neighborhood life. The characters are believable and likeable even as they struggle in their odd ways to survive. The caretaking sister, and the dreaming weak brother who does risky things just to prove himself, are placed in a very realistic setting and background. I did not especially like or understand the ending which seemed to me somewhat forced and melodramatic.
But on the whole this was one of the finer Israeli films I have seen.

A lot of people loved this film - I'm not one of them.......2006-01-14

Oh, I know that everyone who loved this film is going to be very unhappy with me for not loving it. So maybe it was the mood I was in, or maybe it's my taste in films.

This Israeli film (won the Israeli equivalent of the Oscar, as I understand it, so it has something to do with the way Israelis understand themselves, I think) tells the story of a family of 5 struggling to live without the father, who died unexpectedly. The mother is clinically depressed, as nearly as I could tell, and wants to sleep all the time. She works as a midwife, which means working shifts, and a lot of the childcare responsibility falls on the oldest daughter, because the oldest son is no help at all. This daughter is not happy about not being able to have her own life and resents the situation she's in. The youngest two children are not getting enough of their mother's time and attention, who is too busy working and/or depressed (sleeps when she gets home) to give them what they need. Money is tight. The car has trouble starting.

It's just so grim. It's supposed to be a hopeful film, but if that's hopeful, I'm glad I'm not living in Israel. I had to agree with reviewers who commented on how apolitical it is -- this could have been filmed in Europe. There are no Palestinians, no soldiers, no bombs, and no politics. It's very odd, in my opinion.

But what kept me from liking this film very much is that it is just too grim. Just looking at the mother's face made me depressed. Way too little happiness. I can understand why the oldest son is so nihilistic if that is truly what his life is like. I hope it isn't like that.

Saddened effects of a tragedy.......2005-08-22

This 2004 movie so universally depicts grief within a family, silent grief that manifests itself in different manners for each family member. It could be made anywhere. Throughout the duration of the movie, the director Nir Bergman, (his first film) has given the viewer a clear semblance of a family's depression and their lack of mechanisms for coping. We don't need to hear the words to grief and depression, we simply feel it.

Nine months ago, on a family ride, the father was killed by a bee sting. Dafna, the wife and mother is struggling with a car that needs work, a job as a midwife and the ever-present demands of a family of four that includes two teenagers and two youngsters. And like any single-parent family, the oldest children assume a greater role in childcare of the younger ones.

Tragedy strikes again and we see their lives compounded with more stress and grief.

Teenager Maya wants to be a singer and musician, but she is filled with guilt as we later learn that it was she who needed the potty and caused her father to get out of the car. She breaks from her dreams because she knows her brother and sister need care.

The older brother Yair dropped out of school and takes a job delivering brochures dressed as a mouse. His communication gets more bizarre. And it's clear that this costume becomes his mask for coping.

The DVD format is crisp and clear, subtitles are very easy to read with no distractions. There isn't much else and it would have been great to hear commentary about this wonderful movie that is so universal. The movie has won numerous awards ....MzRizz

FANTASTIC!.......2005-07-31

knafayim shuvrot was the first foreign film I had bought,it looked good to me so I took a chance on it,when I got it home,I had a look at the menu,where maya is singing animated movies in the background,I was in tears by the end,the film itself has wonderful acting particularly from maya maron who plays the role of maya,broken wings changed the way I view things and it opened my eyes to a vaster range of film content,I suggest this film to anyone.

My Favorite Movie.......2005-07-30

Hands down, this is my favorite Israeli movie - if not my favorite movie, period. At its simplest, most obvious, level, Broken Wings is the story of a family recovering from the tragic, untimely loss of their patriarch. Yes, it's a drama, but, if the old Shakespearean observation is correct, isn't all the world a stage?

Broken Wing's primary strength is its characters: all of them feel heart-felt and tragic, prone to hurting themselves as much as others; in fact, it is because they're so realistic that you're almost instantly affected by their loss as much as they are. There is Yair, who has dropped out of high school because of his father's death; Maya, his 17 year-old sister, a struggling musician; Ido and Bahr, the little kids coping without their father or overworked mother; and Daphne, the matriarch struggling to pull her life together. Together, they embody and epitomize the largest range of human characterization and purpose I've seen in a work that wasn't Shakespearean.

The theme is simple yet the most universal of all. In a country where death is omnipresent and often unexpected, Broken Wings manages to capture the emotions of moving on after death, people's irrationality when faced with death, and the essence of death - for what is death but a meditation for the living? Broken Wings is Israel's Hamlet. I cannot give it higher praise.

Average customer rating:

Broken Wings (History Channel)

Manufacturer: A&E Home Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

( B ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

NOVA: Crash of Flight 111
Pioneers In Aviation
The Magic of Flight (IMAX) (2-Disc WMVHD Edition)

ASIN: B000FKP06E
Release Date: 2006-05-02

Description

Historian and adventurer Pat Macha introduces us to the world of aviation archaeology: bringing to life once-majestic planes and the men and women who flew them. "Airplane wrecks that remain undisturbed for years provide us with a sobering opportunity to consider the power of nature and the mistaken judgements of man:" Macha explains. Teaming up with forensic experts and aviation authorities: Macha transports us to the past at crash sites and pieces together the puzzle behind the twisted metal.

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