Wendy Ide 

Asia review – mesmerising mother-daughter drama

Alena Yiv and Unorthodox’s Shira Haas are superb in debut director Ruthy Pribarbr’s bravely unsentimental portrait of parenthood
  
  

Divided... Shira Haas and Alena Yiv in Asia.
Divided... Shira Haas and Alena Yiv in Asia. Photograph: Publicity image

A mother and a teenage daughter, not quite estranged but locked into diverging paths, are forced to find common ground when the daughter’s degenerative disease deteriorates and it becomes clear that her life is about to end before her story has properly started. Rigorously unsentimental, this impressive Israeli feature debut from Ruthy Pribar stars a mesmerising Shira Haas (recently seen in Unorthodox) as Vika, the daughter struggling to resolve her frail, failing body with the urge to be a normal, rebellious teenager. As her mother, Asia, Alena Yiv is superb, creating a flawed, flesh-and-blood character who is smart enough to know that doing the right thing by her daughter might place her at odds with society and perhaps even the law.

Watch a trailer for Asia
 

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