Winner of the Camera dOr ("Best First Film") and the Critics Week prize at 2004 Cannes film festival, Israeli filmmaker Keren Yedaya's Or (My Treasure) (Mon trsor) paints a gritty and uncompromising portrait of a mother-daughter relationship through which it ultimately points toward pertinent issues facing the society at large. Set in an unsavory part of Tel Aviv, the film concerns a hard-working 17-year-old Or (Dana Ivgi, from Broken Wings [2002]) and her immature prostitute mother Ruthie (Ronit Elkabetz, from Late Marriage [2001]) who is recovering from her latest bout with drug addiction. Or is desperate to find another line of work for her mother, also addicted to her profession but less for monetary reasons than to fulfill her desire for affection. But the teenager doesnt quite realize that her own nightly heavy-petting sessions with neighborhood boys serve the same purpose for her. Yedayas long, stationary shots are at once intimate and distant to this grim reality, forcing the viewers to interpret the complexity of her protagonists and their decisions. Her images often dismember the characters, not only stressing their fractured lives, but in Ruthies case also accentuating the scars of her rapidly decaying flesh (the filmmaker then contrasts this aesthetical choice with a bold, seemingly never-ending shot of Ors nubile body in a shower). While Or (My Treasure) doesnt hesitate to capture the banality of life in all of its glory, the films specificity with moments strong enough to unravel it is quite unique and powerful. From Or internally questioning her self-worth after the decision of her lovers mother to eventually staring at Ruthie and finding someone quite different, Yedaya measures her descent to be perceptible enough to ultimately unleash an accusatory gaze, one which is perhaps also filled with shame.
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*After premiering at Cannes, OR (MY TREASURE) went onto play at festivals such as Vancouver, New York, and London. The film was released theatrically in the U.S. by Kino International and it is now available on DVD.