Documentary Film about Singer Dafna Armoni made by her daughter, Ella Armoni

Girl, Woman ((ספק ילדה, ספק אשה, directed by Ella Armoni, is a fascinating and masterful work of art.  It offers the portrait of two women – mother and daughter – one a singer and the other a filmmaker.

The mother, Dafna Armoni, was an iconic singer with a painful story.  As a young woman, she sang in Avi Nesher’s 1978 cult film, The Troupe (aka Sing Your Heart Out) about an army singing troupe. She was a singing sensation, and over the years she shared a stage with, among others,  Shalom Hanoch, Arik Einstein, the Dag HaNachash – all of which we see in archival clips. At the age of 37, she gave birth to twins – Ella and Eden. The father of the twins has been a well-kept secret all these years.

The daughter, Ella, is a filmmaker.  Now, at the age of 30, she is making a film about her mother and about their complicated relationship.

Today, Dafna is a lonely and depressed woman with financial difficulties.  While cleaning out her cluttered apartment, she gives Ella a small suitcase that she tells her to keep for her and not to open.  Obviously, Ella opens it anyway, and finds it filled with letters from her father whose identity was always a secret, and many video recordings of the twins as little children back in the 90s, as if these recordings were made as return letters to the secret father.

Girl, Woman (documentary, 2025, 80 minutes) is an extraordinary film, filled with angst, introspection and love.  It is available from Go2Films.