These beautiful lines, sung by seventeen-year-old Maya Ulman, open the film Broken Wings. Maya and her band are preparing to perform live in a talent show in Haifa, but minutes before they’re due onstage, Maya’s mother, Daphna, calls and asks her to come home to take care of her siblings. Daphna, a midwife, has to rush to the hospital for an urgent shift. Maya begs her to find another solution, and finally declares she’s not coming home, telling her mother to figure something out. However, in the next scene, we see a distressed Maya in a gothic costume with black wings returning home to switch with her mom. When the car won’t start, together they push it onto the road, and Daphna drives away to another sleepless night at the hospital.
Broken Wings, directed by Nir Bergman, debuted in 2002 and immediately received critical acclaim. It is still, to this day, considered one of the best Israeli films of all time, not only because of its gripping and heart-wrenching storyline but also because of its outstanding cast: mother Daphna portrayed by Orly Silbersatz Banai, eldest daughter Maya Ulman portrayed by Maya Maron, and the other children portrayed by lesser-known actors who deliver lifetime performances. The film follows a family of four children in Haifa who suddenly lose their father in an unfortunate accident. This sudden death catches everyone off guard, especially mother Daphna, who nearly collapses under the financial and emotional weight that suddenly crashes upon her. Because her children are 5, 11, 15, and 17 years old, most of the burden falls on the shoulders of her eldest daughter Maya, who essentially has to put her life on hold and do whatever she can to keep the family intact.
Grief is something that each and every one of us has to deal with at some point in life, but no one teaches us how to deal with it. You lose the closest person to you, and somehow you have to learn by yourself how to piece your life together. Adding the financial burden, the Ulman family is in crisis after crisis: youngest daughter Bar doesn’t want to go to kindergarten unless her mom takes her. The second youngest brother, Ido, gets bullied at school and spends most of his time alone, jumping from high places while filming himself with a video camera. Then there’s Yair, nicknamed “Mouse,” who has essentially dropped out of school and lost his sense of purpose, constantly muttering his nihilistic philosophy that we’re all just insignificant specks of dust in an infinite universe. Meanwhile, Maya is an intelligent, witty young woman with remarkable musical talent, yet her family responsibilities leave her little room to pursue her dreams. Beyond her music, she has no outlet for expressing the crippling guilt she feels since the accident, and she withdraws further and further into herself.
Broken Wings is not a movie for the faint of heart, this I must say, but what I love about this film is that it portrays grief honestly, with all its nuances and layers. It shows a family struggling to cope with the terrible loss they have suffered, each member managing their grief in their own way: Daphna by drowning herself in work, Bar by clinging to her mother — the only parent she has left, Ido by challenging his body with dangerous physical feats, Yair by adopting a new life philosophy that will protect him from future loss by diminishing the importance of existence itself, and Maya by surrendering completely to her family’s needs — erasing and ignoring her own. Bergman, through his powerful direction, refuses to offer us easy solutions; he gives us the messy reality of loss, where healing isn’t linear and the struggle is daily and unpredictable. Ultimately, the movie shows us that even in the darkest times, moments of strength, compassion, and forgiveness can still emerge within a family.
Listen to this gentle, emotional track from the film:
