At first blush, "Wedding Doll" moves slowly with characters that seem uninteresting and unappealing. Perhaps that is how director/screenwriter Nitzan Gilady wanted his tender movie approached.
As the movie unspools, however, the story of Hagit (Moran Rosenblatt), a dreamer of a girl with learning disabilities, becomes as intriguing as the small wedding dolls she makes from toilet paper rolls and holders.
Set in a small town in southern Israel's Negev desert, cinematographer Roey Roth also creates a reason to stick with the film's 82 minute running time. (Short, but at times it seems longer because of Gilady's plodding direction.)
Rosenblatt as Hagit is radiant, though, and gives Hagit a personality that makes it perfectly understandable why the good looking Omri (Roy Assaf) would be intrigued by her.
Balancing the softness is Hagit's mother, Sara (Asi Levi), a divorced maid who is overly protective of her daughter. When the toilet paper factory she works in lays Hagit off, Mama Bear Sara leaps to her rescue. And the grip that Sara has on Hagit creates a mother-daughter tension that is believably real.
Gilady keeps any tugging at our heartstrings to a limit. Thank you, very much. He lets the story play out so that moviegoers can develop their own emotions around the struggles of Hagit, along with the feeling of claustrophobia the villagers have, especially the young people who want to escape the small town.
"Wedding Doll" won Best Iraesli Debut Feature and Best Actress for Asi Levi at the Jerusalem Film Festival. It also won three Ophir Awards (the Israeli “Oscars”).
"Wedding Doll" is sweetly touching with cinematography that's sometimes outshines its story.
