The eponymous ‘single light’ in Shaylee Atary’s potent drama is both literal and allegorical.
The film follows less than 24 hours in the life of Lali (Yael Elkana) from a nocturnal walk home, during which she is sexually assaulted by a supposed friend, to the following day and the implications of the attack. In the Tel Aviv back alley in which Lali is raped, she stares, unable to move, up at a bright light casting a lurid pall over the events. The next day, she attempts a similar strategy of dissociation to attempt to save herself from the pain of having to process what has happened to her. It’s a bracing, authentic and keenly observed depiction of a tragically common ordeal.
The rape sequence itself is handled delicately, initially shot in a long locked-off take that emphasises Lali’s vulnerability and isolation as her friend tries to take advantage of her lack of sobriety before forcing himself on her. With the attack in progress, the camera cuts to a close-up of Elkana’s performance, her determinedly blank stare as she tries to separate mind from body and escape the experience of the assault.
Elkana is brilliant when she portrays Lali during the following day, teetering on the brink – resolutely trying to brush off the impact of the events, snapping at her caring housemate Ori (Ben Ze’ev Rabain) when he makes too much of a fuss. She is strong-willed but there are chinks in the armour, moments in which pent-up energies threaten to come rushing down like a torrent. The emotional apex of Atary’s film comes in a piano performance by Lali at the music school that she and Ori attend the following day – and where her attacker sits just a few seats away in the classroom. Conveyed by the melody and the mournful edge to the lyrics, the walls begin to crack.
Shot in a cool daylight that juxtaposes pointedly with the orangey streetlights of the night before, the daytime sequences bring the events into the glare of stark reality – the very shot short of the man who raped Lali convey unambiguously the beginnings of guilt about what he did. However, Single Light is not interested in the lament of the abuser, but in portraying the stomach-churning aftermath for a woman subjected to such an attack, and it does so with consummate aplomb.
Director, screenplay, music: Shaylee Atary
Cast: Yael Elkana, Ben Ze’ev Rabain
Producers:
Cinematography: Omar Weiss
Editing: Noa Gottesman
Sound: Rotem Dror
Production company: Encore Films(Israel)
Sales: Go2Films (Israel)
Venue: San Sebastian Film Festival (Zabaltegi-Tabakalera) In Hebrew
29 minutes
