December 31, the last day of the calendar year, a moment poised between the past and the future, is the perfect date for the theatrical release of “7 Minutes in Heaven.” Director Omri Givon’s first feature film centers on Galia, a year after she has lived through the trauma of a terror attack, as she works to put together the fragmented memories of her past, trying to find a way to move forward with her life.
The narrative is seen from Galia’s perspective, at times literally through her eyes, and the viewer receives information about Galia’s past and the attack as Galia receives it, in pieces, not necessarily in chronological order. Galia’s present is a world of pain that doesn’t make sense, and Reymonde Amsellem in the lead role, portrays a vulnerability combined with a sharp desire to seek out the truth, to create a future for herself that is based on a clear vision of reality. Seemingly simple actions, like getting on a bus or walking through the crowded shuk (outdoor market) in Jerusalem are for Galia like entering a battlefield. Her personal journey gives a vivid sense of the tensions of living with a constant sense of danger, loss and guilt— the burden of surviving.
The film won the award for best feature at the Haifa Film Festival in 2008, and has been screened in several festivals in 2009, including Tribeca, and winning the Warsaw Film Festival prize for first feature and audience choice at the 2009 Chicago Festival of Israeli Cinema.
