Tzipora’s Nest

Description

When Malka Nedivi discovers her estranged mother, Tzipora, is subsisting on moldy bread, she moves from Los Angeles to Israel to care for her. ‘Tzipora’s Nest’ follows Malka’s struggle to help her elderly mom while getting lost between the roles of director, only daughter, wife and mother. Fifteen years in the making, Tzipora’s Nest invites you into a world you have never seen. Filmed by her six year old, sixteen year old and even strangers on the street, ‘Tzipora’s Nest’ asks you to put aside any notion of ‘tradition’ or ‘cinema,’ and simply welcomes you to become part of the family. Malka intends to mend Tzipora’s ways, only to find herself in an intense battle against her mother’s equally stubborn will. While trying to help, she decides to film the mother who had cut off one of her pigtails at night and taught her to waltz. The camera she holds acts as a buffer and a shield between them. Malka can cower behind it, or attack her mother with it.

Over the course of six years, giving new meaning to the word guerrilla film-making, this emotionally rich documentary that came out of their experiences describes: the lives of immigrants, the psychological effects of surviving the holocaust, hoarding, aging, and coming to terms with parenting our own parents. Most importantly, though, this story is about a child returning home after many years and getting to know and accept the difficult, loving, unforgettable mother that raised her.