Orly Zilbershatz-Banai stars as Dafna, a mother struggling to keep her family afloat after the sudden death of their beloved father. Forced into a role of surrogate mother to her two youngest siblings, Ido and Bahr, budding songwriter Maya grudgingly tackles domestic chores and struggles to finishher education. Her more philosophical brother, Yair, declares that life is meaningless. To prove his point, he quits high school and takes a job distributing pamphlets on the metro dressed as a giant mouse. Could life become more absurd? When a terrible event strikes once again, only a miracle can save them – a miracle born of love.

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