Mama, Or Sinai’s female gaze

Or Sinai was already thinking about how to cast her first short film while she was still in film school. Much to her surprise – she had to give it a shot – she managed to get Evgenia Dodina, a talented Belarusian-Israeli actress, who immediately accepted the role of Anna, the heroine of her film. The character is deeply lonely and is working hard to care for her son, with no other choice than to forget about herself. When her son tells her he’s going away for the weekend, she reawakens her passion for “going on the prowl,” and resolves to openly flirt with men that she finds attractive.

This approach, telling women’s stories without assuming that they should behave in the same way as men, has already become a hallmark of Or Sinai’s short career. The director also admits that she feels more comfortable depicting female characters. For Mama, she once again calls upon the talents of Evgenia Dodina who plays Mila in the film, a woman who returns to her village in Poland for a short time and is faced with numerous internal conflicts. The multilingual actress is a renowned performer in Israel, capable of performing in six languages, and who learned Hebrew to perform in a play. Here she delivers another subtle, sensitive performance.