Other Israel Film Festival Spotlight: A Place of Her Own

The 5th Annual Other Israel Film Festival begins this Thursday night, and Movies With Abe is proud to offer you a spotlight on some of the films being presented. Visit the festival website for a complete schedule of screenings for the films.


A Place of Her Own
Directed by Sigal Emanuel
Screening November 14 at 8:45pm and November 16 at 8:45pm

This film follows several years of the life of Reut, an Israeli woman with three children, the first of which she had to give up when she was homeless and who ended up in a religious Jewish home. Reut’s story is intriguing but endlessly depressing, and the film proceeds generally without much of a focus, chronicling Reut as she spirals downward and only occasionally upward, particularly the beginning of her marriage to a Palestinian man. Her situation is certainly unfortunate, but it’s hard for her to become a sympathetic character given the way she acts and addresses the camera. She’s an extremely unstable protagonist, and the film isn’t able to decode or analyze her behavior and motivations successfully. Ultimately, her story is simply an unsettling and disturbing tale, and the film doesn’t enhance it with any added weight or meaning.