"Four Hours a Day" is the extraordinary and muted story of young mothers in the kibbutz movement in Israel. Based on Orian Chaplin's bestselling book, it follows a phenomenon that affects thousands of mothers and their children to this day.
Four Hours a Day
A Film by: Ayelet Dekel
(Israel 2022, 56 min, Hebrew, English subtitles)
Four Hours a Day is the extraordinary and yet untold story of young mothers in the kibbutz movement in Israel. Based on Orian Chaplin's bestselling book, it follows a phenomenon that affects thousands of mothers and their children to this day. Babies who, following kibbutz ideology, were taken from their mothers and lived and raised in children home. The mother was allowed to spend time with her child for only Four Hours a Day.
The documentary exposes, for the first time, the mental scars left in the hearts of the mothers as well as their children. Mothers who speak with great pain and candor about years of anguish, overshadowing what should have been natural relationships and emotions, but too often caused disconnection and distress. How do these mothers feel today about what they were forced to do years ago? Were they able to overcome the intensity of the emotional distress?
Ayelet Dekel is an accomplished and awarded filmmaker, documentarist, producer and a former journalist. Created, produced and directed numerous films (documentary and feature), TV series, nationally and internationally. Won Best Documentary in the DocAviv film festival and a nomination for the Ophir prize ("Israeli Oscar") for her film Sumud. Won Best Documentary for That's Not Me.
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