Life is made of repeatable stories, accounts and questions. Birth and death, joy and sickness, youth and old age. In ‘Clinging’ Liat Glick focuses the camera on herself to tell a tender story about a trio made of a mature 47-year-old daughter without a partner or children, her mother and Natasha’s beloved aging dog. This subtle cinema, which applies semi-documentary means, focuses on the woman, her concerns and feelings. It is endearing with its authenticity and fairness revealing the most delicate sphere of the protagonist’s life. It remains close to a human without falling into any radicalism.
The film takes place in Tel Aviv, much of it in a fictitious local pub called Barbie, a satirical nickname for a famous Israeli mental health institution. The pub's name hints at the characters and the events which occur in the pub and which befall its owner (Daliah), the employees and customers. The plot unfolds with a streak of violence which takes a surprising turn.
A semi-retired rocker is dragged to a vegan farm by his ex-girlfriend, on a last attempt for a comeback. Not having much to do, he finds refuge from existential boredom in the Freeland - the land of limitless opportunities for limited souls as himself.
The second chapter in Assi Dayan's trilogy centers on three marginal characters from "Life According to Agfa". Malka, a whore with a Romanian accent who dreams of becoming a singer, Levi, her pimp and Moshe, a homeless man who dreams that Malka will love him and follows Malka and Levi. Levi navigates the trio in a grotesque and turbulent world in which people have lost the purpose of their existence. The result is a black comedy that combines the elements of the film "Bourekas" with poetic enlightening moments, all in the special, confident and blatant style of Assi Dayan.