As part of the program committee of the Gesher Multi-Cultural Film Fund, I have just had the opportunity to watch a very special short film called Carmen, directed by Yahli Maoz (18 minutes). The film was screened as the opening event at the 2025 International Student Film Festival which just took place in Tel Aviv. It is about a woman named Carmen, from the Philippines, who is the caregiver for a resident of a moshav in the center of Israel, Ein Vered.
Walking down a street in their rural area, Carmen finds her employer's cat, who has been hit by a car. She hesitates telling her employer and instead takes the cat and buries her under a bush and decides to keep the cat’s death a secret. But Carmen is a religious woman and she feels bad telling a lie. There is a beautiful scene in which Carmen goes to her singing group, which meets outdoors in someone’s yard, and is made up of people of Philippine background and some of the elderly people that they care for. Carmen leads them in singing Amazing Grace in her mother tongue.
I love student films which provide us with a small window into
the world of what is important to the next generation of young filmmakers.
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