Hajit, is a very pretty 24 year girl, who is obsessed with getting married. She doesn’t actually have a boyfriend, but she does have a potential groom in mind in the shape of her boss’s son who is totally unaware of her intentions. Hajit has a mild mental disability and works as a packer at the small shabby warehouse where they make toilet paper, and on her breaks she makes dolls wearing wedding dresses out of toilet paper, whilst she flirts with Omri the object of her affection.
For his part, Omri is genuinely fond of her, and they often meet up at night when Hajit can sneak out the house, but even though they never appear to go beyond sneaking a few kisses and embraces, Omri still insists that they keep their liasions a secret. His intentions are never very clear but then there are quite a few unexplained plot strands in this wee drama that is rather delightful despite it’s somewhat downbeat climax.
With her father long gone, Hajit lives with just her mother Sara together in an apartment in a small town in Israel’s Negrave desert region. Ever since Hajit was terrorized by some neighborhood children, her mother has been over-protective to the point of almost stifling poor Hajit, and has put her own life on hold so that she keep a very close eye on her daughter. Her only respite is when she drops Hajit off work each day, but even that may soon end as the toilet paper business is so unsuccessful that it may soon close. Omri’s father is about to accept any offer of a Bank Loan to help keep it afloat, but he has a change of heart when he inadvertently discovers that his son has been taking advantage of Hajit their only employee, and one with such limited mental ability .
Hajit is desperate for her independence and she thinks if she can land a job elsewhere that Omri and she can marry, but sadly her naive attempt to get employed at a wedding dress boutique goes nowhere when she innocently shows them her child-like drawings. Omri is going to make changes too by moving to the big city now that his father is determined to close the factory, and so his friends throw him a farewell party which Hajit ends up being invite to thinking that there is a totally different reason for the celebrations.
Despite the gaps in the rather thin plot, the rather superb performances of Assi Levy and Moran Rosenblatt as the mother and daughter respectively lift the movie to a much higher level. Levy as the overwrought Sara who is racked with so much guilt about Hajit’s childhood experience plays her role with so much angst and frustration that she stands a very good chance of losing her new boyfriend who she blows off most nights as she doesn’t want to leave Hajit to her own devices. Rosenblatt is utterly charming as she plays the sheer refreshing innocence of a child trapped in a woman’s body with such joy and tenderness, and she is a real delight to watch.
The movie is the first feature written and directed by documentarian Nitzan Giladi whose previous work includes the rather charming Family Ties which followed him and his family when they all squashed ini an RV to travel across the US.
