Orchim LeRega (Off White Lies)

Israel / France 2011, 86 min, Hebrew, English

Libby is thirteen. She has come to Israel to live with her father, Shaul, – although she barely knows him and doesn’t really know what to think of him. Shaul is a charming rogue who manages to get by on a pack of white lies. He’s permanently broke – in spite of a string of curious inventions – and doesn’t even have a home to call his own. Apparently this poses no problem because there’s a war on and so, pretending to be a single father from a village hit by a rocket, he manages to pursuade a well-to-do family to provide a bed for himself and his daughter. But how does Libby cope with this new lifestyle? She is now of an age where she needs to carve her own niche in life and is no longer prepared to do as she’s told. And so it’s only a matter of time before she tugs at the reins and tears down Shaul’s carefully constructed web of lies. But could this end spell a new beginning? Maya Kenig’s film takes an unusual approach to describing life in a country where war has become the norm and where people have learned to live in a permanent state of emergency. Her protagonist’s gaze is alert and reflects a future that is wide open.