We bring up our sons to be heroes and then we send them off to war. A serious look at how one mother copes.

Another Israeli feature film that opened at the Jerusalem Film Festival this week --  

Oxygen, directed by Netalie Braun, is a hard-hitting and serious look at Israeli mothers and what they are forced to face when their sons go off to serve in the military. We bring up our sons to become soldiers and heroes, but worry frantically when they go to serve in wartime.

Netalie Braun is well-known for two previous major films -- 

• the award-winning documentary, The Hangman
• Metamorphosis, a film which combines documentary and video art.

Anat and her son Ido, who is a soldier in the Golani unit, have a very special relationship. They go swimming in the sea together and are planning a trip to India when he is discharged from the army.  Anat is the daughter of an army general. She teaches in an elementary school, where she teaches the children about the glory and heroism of the Six Day War.  She is obviously fully supportive of the Israel Defense Forces.

When her son is preparing to be part of a military ground incursion into Lebanon, something inside her snaps and she begins to panic that something will happen to her son.  We are all asked to make sacrifices, but Anat does not want to lose her son whom she loves more than anything. She sets out on a journey to the Lebanese border to find her son and bring him home. Not succeeding in that, she begins to hatch a plan in which she thinks she can save him.

There is a scene in the film in which Anat locks the front door of their apartment and hides the key so that Ido cannot leave the house and return to his unit. This scene reminded me of another Israeli film, Present Continuous (2012) directed by Aner Preminger, which was also about a woman in crisis who wants only to protect her children.

Oxygen provides a platform for a remarkable performance by Dana Ivgy as the mother, panicked about losing her son. Both the mother – from her crisis mindset – and the son – due to his asthma – seem to be in need of oxygen!  At this time of ongoing war, are the mothers of Israel capable of protecting their children?

Details about availability can be obtained from Aviv Ben Shlush, Producer at ZOA Films, aviv@zoafilms.com or Adi Bar Yosef, Producer at Baryo Productions, adibaryo@gmail.com