BEN ZAKEN

בן זקן

By Efrat COREM

PATRA SPANOU FILM - as SALES All rights, World

First film - Completed 2014

When Shlomi Ben Zaken, a single father to Ruchi age 11, recognizes his inability to function as a father, his challenge is to let go of his daughter in order to protect her from the same destiny as his.

Festivals
& Awards

Berlinale - Berlin IFF 2015
Forum
BAFICI (Buenos Aires) 2015
Official Selection
Sguardi Altrove FF 2015
Best film
Hong Kong IFF 2015
    • Year of production
    • 2014
    • Genres
    • First film, Jewish, Drama
    • Countries
    • ISRAEL
    • Languages
    • HEBREW
    • Budget
    • 0.3 - 0.6 M$
    • Duration
    • 90 mn
    • Director(s)
    • Efrat COREM
    • Writer(s)
    • Efrat COREM
    • Producer(s)
    • Itai TAMIR (Laila Films)
    • Synopsis
    • Shlomi Ben Zaken (Eliraz Sade), a single parent, has been raising his only daughter, Ruchi, age 11, since she was born in his mother’s house in Ashkelon. The Ben Zaken family lives in a building on pillars in the southern part of the city, in an enclave populated for years by generations of immigrants in mute dependency ties of survival and identity. Like the pillars, the people in the enclave witness what is happening around them and are assimilated in the local scenery. But the conflict between dependency and autonomy, between being swallowed up in the enclave and identity, never ends. Shlomi struggles with himself and with his surroundings to retain custody of his daughter, but also recognizes his inability to function as a father and to provide his only daughter an opportunity and a better life like the one he would want for himself.
      Will he succeed in setting his daughter free, and enabling her to be graced with what he never gained?