Or (My Treasure)

Streaming video - 2004

Or, a pretty and popular Tel Aviv high school student, works nights at a neighborhood restaurant while taking her first tentative steps out of innocence and into first love. But Or's real full-time job is looking after her mother Ruthie. After 20 dehumanizing years of curbside prostitution, Ruthie's survival instincts have begun to deteriorate, and it's up to OR to see that mother and daughter don't both wind up on the street together. Or's love, loyalty and resourcefulness are put to the test as Ruthie's compulsive self-destructiveness keeps driving her back into prostitution. As the cruel realities of marginalized city life multiply, OR is forced to choose between her mother's bottomless needs and having... an uncorrupted life of her own. Winner of a Golden Camera Award at the **Cannes Film Festival Winner**. *"Tough, direct and clear-headed...one of the most remarkable pictures to emerge from the recent Israeli cinema." - Stuart Klawans, **The Nation*** more