by MATTHEW HAYS

Their father and husband gone, a family struggles to get over the precarious emotional terrain of mourning. They all suffer through their own distinct personality problems, each one part of the fallout from the death of dad. No, it's not a Canadian movie.

Instead, Broken Wings is an Israeli film (the opener for last week's Jewish Film Fest), a feature directorial debut by Nir Bergman that is both subtle and beautiful. Ostensibly simple in style and story, writer-director Bergman manages to create a film that is actually very complex.

Mom (Orli Zilberschatz-Banai) is the seriously poor nurse who, in the face of widowhood, scrambles for more night shifts in order to keep her clan fiscally afloat. It's a hefty task, seeing as each of her children is manoeuvring their way through a litany of oddball obsessions and neuroses. The youngest, a sweet girl seen through none of the sentimental gauze that usually mars studio depictions of children in this age range, is horrified at the prospect of starting kindergarten. As a result, she's wetting the bed. Next up in age is Ido, an 11-year-old with a fixation for leaping from higher and higher peaks. Yair is a 16-year-old who is firmly entrenched in the no-win philosophies of existentialism while his older sister, Maya, cannot handle the pressure placed upon her to become a stand-in parent in the face of such a vacuum.

After Ido ups the ante with his leaping ways, he decides to jump off a high-diving board into an empty pool, with only his very young sister around to see what happens. He's knocked unconscious, and his terrified sister has no idea what to do or where to go for help.

The brilliance of Broken Wings is its ability to flesh out each particular character so beautifully. This is a textbook case of exceptional ensemble work, with each character managing to stand out while completing the whole. This is a melodrama where the entire family is the protagonist - culminating in a striking, accomplished feature film.

Broken Wings opens Friday, May 14 at the Cinéma du Parc

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