Broken Wings (Knafayim Shvurot) (2002)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	Main Menu Audio & Animation Theatrical Trailer Gallery-Photo
Rating
Year Of Production	2002
Running Time	80:18
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Nir Bergman
Studio Distributor	Israel Film Fund Warner Home Video	Starring	Orly Silbersatz Banai Maya Maron Nitai Gaviratz Vladimir Friedman Dana Ivgi Danny Niv Daniel Magon Eliana Magon
Case	?
RPI	$24.95	Music	Avi Belleli

    Broken Wings (Knafayim Shvurot) is an intimate and poetic snapshot of an Israeli family who have lost their sense of direction. The source of their despair is hinted at early and teased out during the course of the film.

    Single mother Dafna Yulman (Orly Silbersatz Banai) is barely functioning. She is unable to provide emotional support to her four children and is working long and late shifts at a local hospital. The stress of raising the family has fallen on the unwilling shoulders of eldest daughter Maya (Maya Maron), frustrating her chances of succeeding at school or as a singer in a band. Eldest son Yair (Nitai Gaviratz) has dropped out of school completely and adopts a brittle view of the world. He works handing out leaflets on trains whilst dressed as a mouse.

    Youngest son Ido (Daniel Magon) skips school due to bullying and is obsessed by filming himself jumping from high places whilst youngest daughter Bahr ( Eliana Magon) is facing her first day at kindergarten without her mother's support.

    Each of the senior family members is also attempting to deal with difficult relationships. Another crisis forces the family to examine their lives and either embrace or reject their family ties.

    Director Nir Bergman has an eye for the understated which helps the film avoid the melodramatic clichés into which it could easily have fallen. With a production design emphasising the decaying and mean surroundings, Broken Wings could easily have been a depressing experience. The fact that it isn’t is due to a combination of a heartfelt and nuanced script and excellent acting from all the leads with particularly strong performances from the child actors. It is a film where the setbacks are great and all the advances are in inches, but ultimately it radiates hope that just maybe the broken wings will be healed.

    The film was a critical success upon release in 2002 gathering the Grand Jury Prize at the Tokyo Film Festival and dominating the Israeli Film Academy Awards walking away with awards in almost every category.

Video

    Broken Wings was shot in 35mm at the European Widescreen 1.66:1 aspect ratio.

    The Region 1 version is given anamorphic widescreen treatment whereas we have only a 1.33:1 full screen version. Whilst not strictly stated it appears to be a Pan & Scan transfer.

    This would be a tragedy for almost anything else, however Broken Wings is shot predominantly in close-up and the effect of the transfer is to give the film a claustrophobia which suits its purpose. At times the characters looked like they were trapped by the film, unable to escape. Having said that, it is a crying shame that we were not given the freedom of both transfers.

    The transfer quality is generally good. It is shot through with a slight grain, most noticeable in the outdoor scenes but this doesn’t detract from the film experience.

    There are a few minor artefacts but otherwise the print is clean. The colour palette is muted with some predominant greys and greens giving a slightly washed out look to the flesh tones and cityscapes which is also fitting.

    The subtitles are clear and easy to read. There is a short scene in a nightclub at 1.03 which is not sub-titled but I suspect that this is intentional representing the confusion of the characters.

Video Ratings Summary

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Shadow Detail
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Audio

    Broken Wings is in Hebrew with English subtitles. There is no dubbed track. The film is presented with a 2.0 mix that is clear and pleasing to the ear. There is little subwoofer use, however this is not important to the film.

    The film is largely dialogue-based and calls for little in the way of surround effects. The dialogue seemed to be delivered clearly with no annoying audio sync problems.

    The music by Avi Belleli is suitably poignant and mournful and there is a featured song sung by Maya which is both sad and catchy.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    There is nothing really in terms of extras. The DVD loads directly to the menu screen which is accompanied by some of the poignant music from the film.

    The trailer for the film is fairly brief and there are no other trailers.

    There is a short selection of photos which do not add anything to the package.

    The extras are disappointing, as it would have been quite interesting to see how director Bergman and his cast approached this project which was for many of them their first film.

    Given that the Region 1 version has an Anamorphic Widescreen transfer and neither has any extras unfortunately the Region 1 version is probably to be preferred.

    Broken Wings is a minor triumph for Israeli cinema to be enjoyed by anyone who enjoys intimate drama. It is devoid of politics and despite the heavy nature of the subject matter is rarely depressing. But for the failure to give us a widescreen transfer the film would have scored higher.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall