Broken Wings review

Seventeen-year-old Maya (Maya Maron) is a Goth slacker in a family that's rapidly falling apart following the death of her father. Spending more time looking after her younger siblings than practising music, she's fed up with helping her stressed-out mother, Dafna (Orli Zilverschatz-Banay), juggle parenting duties with double shifts at the local hospital. What Maya needs is for her older brother Yair (Nitai Gvirtz) to stop moping about and pull his finger out - but Yair's too busy contemplating the meaninglessness of existence while handing out leaflets on the subway dressed in a mouse costume.

A moving story of bereavement, loss and family togetherness, this Israeli drama may be slight, but it's the little touches that keep it vibrant. Crackling with realistic dialogue between the ever-bitching kids, but never losing sight of the humanity that makes their humdrum lives so desperately watchable, Broken Wings is both believable and heart-wrenching. It also finds moments of unexpected comedy, notably in Dafna's attempts to join a video-dating agency.