War on the home front

An Israeli film that doesn't mention the war: Nir Bergman prefers to stick to one middle-class family whose troubles are within. Mum is widowed and overworking at what she laconically calls "the oldest profession" - a midwife.

Elder daughter dreams of pop-group fame, is embedded with a body-pierced boyfriend and resents "mothering" her siblings when she might be clubbing.

The elder son is a high-school drop-out, rising late, putting on a giant mouse suit, and handing out nihilist pamphlets on the metro.

The five-year-old daughter can't depend on anyone to get her to and from school, and feels abandoned.

The 10-year-old son is strenuously trying to video himself jumping into a swimming pool at the deep end - fine, except it's empty. On the whole, the battle front might be easier to cope with.

Broken Wings is a sentimental, minor movie whose resonance might have been usefully enlarged had it suggested how the external traumas of an unseen, unheard, unmentioned war were being internalised in dysfunctional relationships.

But good acting and brisk pacing hold the attention like the churning status quo of a daily radio serial - "The Everyday Life of Haifa Folk"? As a feature debut, it's already almost too slick.

Broken Wings
Cert: cert15