There Were Nights

Original title: Haiu Leilot

2010
1h 30m

IMDb RATING

YOUR RATING

Dana Ivgy and Moshe Ivgy in There Were Nights (2010)

Gony's father lost his reputation, his pride and his desire to live after serving a short prison sentence twenty years ago. A little later he lost his wife, Gony's mother, to cancer. Since t... Read allGony's father lost his reputation, his pride and his desire to live after serving a short prison sentence twenty years ago. A little later he lost his wife, Gony's mother, to cancer. Since then, at age seven, Gony, an only child, has served as her father's emotional crutch, livin... Read allGony's father lost his reputation, his pride and his desire to live after serving a short prison sentence twenty years ago. A little later he lost his wife, Gony's mother, to cancer. Since then, at age seven, Gony, an only child, has served as her father's emotional crutch, living through his terror and loss. Now, at twenty-five, Gony is about to make her first steps ... Read all

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.9/10

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 8 nominations total

Photos

Storyline

Edit

User reviews1

Review

Featured review

7/10

Well acted - starts a little confusingly

I caught a preview last night. The movie starts with a rather flamboyant musical dress rehearsal, which turns out not to set the tone for the rest of the scenes but to contrast with them. They tell a somber story about a theatrical family. Auteur Ron Ninio is a second-generation theater director himself and he bases important aspects of the story on his own family. I'm sure I was not the smartest person in the audience, but it took me a while to figure out that the action was switching between two time periods, with two actresses playing the same character at different ages. It also took a while before a scene came along that made me sit up and say "Aha, the plot has started." I guess the emphasis is on the complex family situation and the acting, and there was some excellent acting from Jenya Dodina and from the man who seems to get all the good leading character roles in Israeli cinema, Moshe Ivgy. His daughter (on and off screen) Dana Ivgy tends to assume a blank look while the actress playing the same character at a younger age supplies the emotional resonance for her. For an Israeli viewer, the movie is lacking a sense of place; presumably we are somewhere in greater Tel Aviv, more or less by default, but I didn't see any landmarks, and something to anchor the action geographically would have been welcome.