Or

Or; drama, Israel / France, 2004; D: Keren Yedaya, S: Dana Ivgy, Ronit Elkabetz, Meshar Cohen, Katia Zimbris, Shmuel Edelman

Tel Aviv. Or is an 18-year old girl worried for her mother Ruthie who is working as a prostitute. Or buys her medicine against STDs, cares for her and finds her new jobs, like the one of a cleaning lady. But there is always a lack of money, so Or works as a dish washer, and sometimes as a prostitute herself. When she falls in love with friend Ida, his mother forbids him to see her again due to her "reputation". Despite many promising jobs, Ruthie returns to prostitution. Or becomes employed as an escort girl.

The theme of prostitution was presented in drama "Or" from female director Keren Yedaya, and was appropriately handled by using long, static shots that distanced themselves from the tricky story and presented it in an objective way, and in doing so it presented an interesting structure: the first half is very introverted, tame, almost monotone is its characterization of protagonists, while the other half becomes its complete opposite in which extroverted scenes of sex become more and more frequent, mostly revolving around the heroine Or (for instance, she has to sleep with the overweight, older landlord in order to clear her debt of house rent). This uality drama about a female view on prostitution and its system refuses to preach or cheaply blame anyone. The realisation as a whole could have been more skillful or poignant, but Israel's cinema remains an interesting cinema - the uncompromising bleak ending is authentic and actress Dana Ivgy delivered a great performance as the tragic title heroine who is somehow destined to follow her mother's footsteps: when at the end a touching moment shows up in which Or starts crying because her mother puts on make up and leaves the apartment to once again resume her work, the viewer simply has to be shattered.

Grade:++