Nina's Tragedies

Nina's Tragedies suffers from having too many storylines, none of which are interesting enough to carry the film. Loosely tied to all plotlines are Nadav, a rather forgotten about 14 year-old Israeli boy, and his Aunt Nina. Nadav is a trainee Peeping Tom with a particular penchant for Nina, and he and his 40ish friend Menachem flit from window to window, watching local dramas unfold. There's the mother with her succession of boyfriends, the father who abandons the family to live in a religious commune, Nina's tempestuous relationship with Haimon, then, when Haimon dies in a roadside bomb incident, Nina's burgeoning relationship with the army photographer. All of this is documented in Nadav's big red diary. Although the film starts off with a lot of black humour, it unfortunately descends into plain old black. It would probably be touching if you could bring yourself to care about any of the characters, but they're all too distant to engage with. 107 minutes, but feels a lot longer. [Cara McGuigan]