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White Lies
Director - Yitzhak Rubin
2000, Hebrew
Israel
Cast: Orna Porat, Sharon Alexander, Jina Lidoni, Smadar Kiltzinsky, Alex Monte, Arie Alias, Jak Adlist, Zipora Peled, Salim Daao.
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A family of Holocaust survivors and their second generation children use white lies reflecting pain, humor, love and compassion to protect each other.
A young theatre director, [Sharon Alexander] suffering a psychological crises followed by a broken love affair and the failure of his first play, returns to Israel after many years in Paris.
This ‘escape’ illusion disintegrates when he learns that his mother, a Holocaust survivor [Orna Porat], has terminal cancer. As a result of this devastating news, a web of ‘white lies’ unfolds and escalates within the family.
To reduce the Mother’s anxiety and fear the son conceals his own misery and heroically maintains the pretence of normal life by hiding the mother’s condition from her. The mother, against the backdrop of her Holocaust experience, has the constant need to protect her children by not exposing them to the realities of the horrors she went through. She continues this pattern by refusing to acknowledge her son’s sense of personal failure.
The family doctor and personal friend [Yossi Segal], who had misdiagnosed the early stages of the Mother’s illness, is guilt-ridden and therefore cooperates with the son in concealing the facts from the mother.
The daughter [Smadar Kalchinsky] returns from the US to visit her dying mother and shatters the conspiracy of ‘white lies’ within the family.
This ‘web of white lies’ continues to flourish within the drama even after the death of the mother.
Los Angeles Times - "Alexander and Porat are most impressive…"
Times Of India - "…white lies is a superb film… With first rate performances by Orna Porat and Sharon Alexander, and a minutely-observant screenplay, this film is a winner"
The Sunday Times - "Of the nearly 90 films, Itzhak Rubin's "White Lies" was one of the fourth best included…"
New York Observer - "… breathtaking… "
Script: Yitzhak Rubin
Producers: Avishai Kfir & Yitzhak Rubin
Production Company: Teknews Media Ltd.
Photography: Ron Katzenelson
Music: Joseph Brandashvillie
Editing: Arik Lebowitz ,Yitzhak Rubin,Victor Turkia
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