Institute History
Description
On a kibbutz in southern Israel in the 1970's, Dvir Avni realizes that his mother, Miri, is mentally ill. In this closed community bound by rigid rules, Dvir navigates between the kibbutz motto of equality and the stinging reality that his mother, in effect, has been abandoned by their collective community.
Despite being raised in the communal environment of the kibbutz, Dvir is not necessarily better off because of his "extended family." The kibbutz is filled with unusual characters, and some less savory than one might expect. Avram, the dairyman, singles out his favorite calf each morning to perform oral sex on him. Etti, Avram's wife, is having a secret affair with Shimshon, the Kibbutz general secretariat. At night, the kibbutz doesn't rest. The young kibbutzniks chat up the Scandinavian volunteers, telling them heroic tales in broken English. Kids break into the kibbutz kitchen fridge to steal ice cream, only to get locked in and nearly freeze to death. The night guards are busy having sex with partners to whom they are not necessarily married.
Dvir's bar mitzvah year begins, with the goal of completing 13 assignments as part of his journey into adulthood. Number one on his list is the mission of saving his mother. Dvir fabricates love letters to Miri’s Swiss boyfriend, Stephan. His ploy is successful and one day Stephan appears, inviting Miri and Dvir to join him in Switzerland. The reunion seems to do wonders for Miri, and Dvir is sure she is cured—until one night when she has a psychotic episode that shatters the illusion. Soon after, Stephan leaves the Kibbutz alone, taking Dvir and Miri’s last hope with him.
Once Stephan is gone, Miri's condition deteriorates. The kibbutz men now regularly sexually exploit her. Dvir begins to understand that the task he has taken on himself may be beyond his reach.
When Miri breaks down and embarrasses herself and Dvir during the ceremony marking the end of Dvir's thirteenth year, it is the last straw. His heart muddled with his own pain and his mother's existential suffering, Dvir makes a chilling decision that changes his life forever.