David O'ConnellThere Were Nights @ The Israeli Film Festival
August 25th 2010 04:31
A troubled father-daughter relationship is placed under the microscope in Ron Ninio’s leisurely paced, undernourished drama There Were Nights. Ninio uses two intertwining time strands to chart the early influence of Yitzhak (Moshe Ivgy) on his daughter Goni (Dana Ivgy) who idolises him. Yitzhak is an artistic stage director of some renown in Tel Aviv – quite a contrast to the broken, embittered man we see in the present: graying, sullen and struggling to overcome ill health just as Goni is intending to spread her wings and take up residence in an apartment she can call her own.
This latest setback has her second-guessing the wisdom of restricted contact with the old man, departing at a most inopportune and vulnerable moment for him. But his run of trouble stretches back to a time when his latest stage success was overshadowed by allegations of fabricating invoices. In fact Yitzhak never denies the charges, having been compelled by dire financial circumstances to forge them because he felt it was only way of getting paid by the theatre owners. A brief prison term followed but Yitzhak never really recovered after discovering that the majority of his colleagues – all considered close friends – turning the other way to avoid association with a man who, in their eyes, disgraced himself.
There Were Nights (2010) is neither about reparations nor redemption, though Goni attempts to heal old, still-weeping wounds by re-introducing her father to the world of theatre he bitterly discarded in the wake of his incarceration. Rather, this is a film about the special bond between a man and his daughter; a shared love tested by circumstance, especially through months of existential angst as Goni's mother Ora (Jenya Dodina) fought a losing battle with terminal illness.
The performances are the film’s saving grace, with the casting of real-life father and daughter helping to create an occasionally poignant authenticity in the relationship. Maya Cohen as the young Goni is also used to great effect; Ninio hones in on her luminescent gaze in many telling close-ups as scenes shift from the broader turmoil engulfing the family to Goni’s silent reactions and the fracturing of her innocence that follows.
There Were Nights is a gentle but slight and underwhelming drama. The central relationship is wrought with tenderness and an infusion of highly credible, affectionate domestic moments. Unfortunately the layering of overtly sentimental music injures the worth of Ninio’s screenplay, contributing a manipulative element that draws unnecessarily attention to itself. Ultimately there’s just not enough substance here to elevate the film beyond the curve of telemovie standards. It even generates an anachronistic feel through the implementation of hazy cinematography and a drab production design that tends to make the present day scenes as aesthetically unattractive as the flashbacks.
Real life father and daughter, Moshe and Dana Ivgy as Yitzhak and Goni
The 2010 Israeli Film Festival: Melbourne 17 – 22 August
and Sydney 31 August – 5 September
The official website with full details can be found here.
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