“Round Trip”
Having the luxury of not having to go to work in the morning, I stopped by I Love Video to peruse their collection. Not only did I bring home a VHS copy of Ang Lee’s first film Pushing Hands which I have been looking for forever, I also grabbed Round Trip because I’m trying to be more spontaneous in the foreign film section lately.
Round Trip is a 2003 Israeli movie in Hebrew and English about Nurit, a mother and bus driver who leaves her husband and takes her two kids from their small northern town to Tel Aviv. Upon getting there she finds it hard to care for them and so starts looking for a nanny that will work for room and board. Enter deliciously beautiful Mushibi, a Nigerian immigrant who sews clothes, works nights cleaning at a hospital and has a son in Nigeria. A relationship blossoms between the two and of course all sorts of complications ensue. The plot isn’t fabulously original, but the movie itself is lovely.
What I really liked is how low to the ground it is. It seems to have a fairly low budget and focuses on people who aren’t anywhere near making ends meet doing what they must to get by. It has excellent acting and characters that aren’t necessarily easy to like. All of this is rare in an American film so it’s refreshing. It’s worth checking out.