(Hebrew with English subtitles)

directed by Nitza Gonen
script & production - Ilana Elad and Nitza Gonen

After losing one of her four children to a terrorist attack and another to a car accident, Nelli Portughez feels she has nothing to live for. Hope returns when she decides to raise four abandoned children, all with Down’s Syndrome. This documentary follows Nelli’s life as she copes with the challenges despite opposition from her family. This is a study of a woman who decides to stand up for her right to give love and life.

festivals & screenings:

Docaviv Festival, Tel Aviv 2002
broadcast on channel 2, Israel 2002
The Hong Kong Israeli Festival 2003
The San Francisco Jewish Festival 2003
nominated for the Israeli Academy Award 2003

Nitza Gonen - director

Having graduated in Television, Cinema and Literature from Paris and Tel-Aviv, Gonen has directed and produced a variety of television and cinematic projects, focusing on drama films and innovative documentaries, as well as concerts and opera events. Her films deal with human and social issues. Daddy Come to the Fair and Family Secrets bring out the inner life of Holocaust survivors and the second generation. In The Bunker, the hero, an Israeli artist, is obsessed, in his art, with Hitler. Israel today is seen through Dimonians, a series about people in the desert.

Ruth Films - the film’s Israeli distributor

ruthdis@netvision.net.il