Just came back from seeing this at the Haifa Film Festival. The film tells the story of Uzi (Yigal Adika) who discovers that his happy, full of life 30 year old wife, Noga, is sick with Melanoma and has only a short time left to live. It details the progress of the cancer, the medical treatments, and the psychological effects of it on Noga, Uzi and their children. Yigal Adika initiated this production as a tribute to his late wife who died of this disease.
As far as the production goes, anything was done to keep this painfully realistic. The acting was very good, both from Adika and the actress who played his wife. The hospital scenes are very true to life (except for when the doctor agrees to Yigal's request to keep the severity of Noga's condition a secret from her at the beginning - that's immoral and even illegal as far as I know). The signs of the disease are wrenchingly detailed. The hopelessness of these situations is delivered and well conveyed. Even the shaky hand-held camera can be somewhat justified towards making this appear more like documentation of real events than a scripted film.
The problem is that the same realism that lifts this movie up is the same thing that turns it into such a difficult watch. All the physical signs of illness and hospitalization make it a very unpleasant experience, especially on anyone who went through a similar ordeal with a loved one. Seeing it made me remember all those bad things people always try not to think about. Frankly, I believe such movies should be overall avoided. Enjoy life while it's good. Pain, sickness and sorrow happen often enough in real life, I see no reason to go and watch it willingly in a movie...
As far as the production goes, anything was done to keep this painfully realistic. The acting was very good, both from Adika and the actress who played his wife. The hospital scenes are very true to life (except for when the doctor agrees to Yigal's request to keep the severity of Noga's condition a secret from her at the beginning - that's immoral and even illegal as far as I know). The signs of the disease are wrenchingly detailed. The hopelessness of these situations is delivered and well conveyed. Even the shaky hand-held camera can be somewhat justified towards making this appear more like documentation of real events than a scripted film.
The problem is that the same realism that lifts this movie up is the same thing that turns it into such a difficult watch. All the physical signs of illness and hospitalization make it a very unpleasant experience, especially on anyone who went through a similar ordeal with a loved one. Seeing it made me remember all those bad things people always try not to think about. Frankly, I believe such movies should be overall avoided. Enjoy life while it's good. Pain, sickness and sorrow happen often enough in real life, I see no reason to go and watch it willingly in a movie...