The Decade List: Or (Mon trésor) (2004)

Or (Mon trésor) [Or (My Treasure)] – dir. Keren Yedaya

Keren Yedaya’s debut feature Or (My Treasure) is a truly disconcerting experience, surprising and bold. For starters, the frame never moves; each shot is taken from a stationary camera that exposes with crisp precision every unflattering detail. The story, about a woman who can’t bring herself to quit pulling tricks and her daughter who can't bear to see her mother waste away to that lifestyle, sounds familiar. However, the emotional and personal conflicts within the daughter, Or, make for juicy, complex cinema. Ronit Elkabetz (so perfect in Late Marriage) and Dana Ivfy, who also play a separate mother/daughter pair in Yedaya’s 2009 Jaffa, deliver some wonderful, difficult performances. Or (My Treasure) has the ability to quietly disturb and revolt.

With: Ronit Elkabetz, Dana Ivgy, Meshar Cohen, Katia Zinbris, Shmuel Edelman, Sarit Vino-Elad
Screenplay: Sari Ezouz, Keren Yedaya
Cinematography: Laurent Brunet
Country of Origin: Israel/France
US Distributor: Kino

Premiere: 17 May 2004 (Cannes Film Festival)
US Premiere: 5 October 2004 (New York Film Festival)

Awards: Caméra d’Or, Critics Week Grand Prize, Prix regards jeune (Cannes Film Festival); Best Actress – Dana Ivgy (Awards of the Israeli Film Academy); Best Israeli Feature (Jerusalem Film Festival); New Voices/New Visions Special Mention (Palm Springs International Film Festival)

Cannes 2009 Line-Up: Updates

Via Variety, the full jury, headed by Isabelle Huppert, has also been announced: Asia Argento, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Lee Chang-dong, James Gray, Hanif Kureishi, Shu Qi and Robin Wright Penn. In addition to that, a number of other screenings have been announced out of the festival's main competition. Marina de Van's Ne te retourne pas, her second feature after Dans ma peau [In My Skin], will screen along with Sam Raimi's Drag Me to Hell in the Midnight Program. The film stars Sophie Marceau, Monica Bellucci and Andrea Di Stefano. Michel Gondry's L'épine dans le coeur, Souleymane Cissé's (Yeelen) Min ye and Keren Yedaya's (Or My Treasure) Jaffa will receive special screenings. In the Un Certain Regard category: Denis Dercourt's (The Page Turner) Demain des l'aube; Alain Cavalier's (La chamade) Irène; Bahman Ghobadi's (A Time for Drunken Horses) Nobody Knows About the Persian Cats; Bong Joon-ho's (The Host) Mother; João Pedro Rodrigues' (O Fantasma) To Die Like a Man; Tales from the Golden Age from Romanian directors Hanno Hofer, Razvan Marculescu, Cristian Mungiu, Constantin Popescu and Ioana Uricaru; Pavel Lounguine's (Taxi Blues) Tzar; Pen-ek Ratanaruang's (Last Life in the Universe) Nymph; and Lee Daniels' (Shadowboxer) Precious, formerly known as Push. Check the Variety link above for more information.