BEN ZAKEN

Shlomi Ben Zaken has been raising his eleven-year-old daughter Ruchi as a single father 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. “The camera functions as a witness. My intent was to keep the characters from conducting themselves in front of it; I wanted to give them the freedom to move, though in terms of narrative, they are never really free.” (Efrat Corem)

In the presence of Efrat Corem.