Synopsis
Between 1977-1978, a serial rapist in the Tel Aviv area raped about twenty women and girls. He was caught and sentenced to 30 years; the Supreme Court reduced his sentence to 18 years. After serving 10 years, he was released for good behavior. Nira and Lily were two of his victims.
Two of the women who were raped meet unexpectedly twenty years later. Nira, a television editor, a single-mother of a young girl, is passive, withdrawn, and fearful. She meets Lily, a dance instructor, an energetic and charismatic left wing activist who is helping Palestinian olive pickers. She is the mother of a grown daughter and has a son in the army.
The impact of the random meeting affects and forms Nira and Lily's lives. After the rape, Nira was silenced. She distanced herself as much as possible from the event of the attack and shut herself away. Her memory became blurry and many details of the period escaped her. Lily's captivating presence opens up vitality in Nira that had been blocked more than twenty years before, sending her on a journey into the layers of the past, to waken the memory and close the gap between who she had been and who she had become. In the course of her search, she meets other women who were raped by the same rapist and documents their stories.
Lily is going through a profound crisis in her marriage. She repels Nira's attempts to befriend her. The last thing she needs right now is to be overwhelmed by the trauma of the rape. But in her weakness, she is no longer able to hold back the pain and it erupts to take control of her consciousness and her life. Her relationship with her son, daughter and spouse are tested and gradually Lily realizes that she has no choice but to confront the cracks in her ostensibly perfect life.
Lily joins Nira and together the two set out on a difficult journey to release the anguish that had connected them in the summer of 1978.
The film includes a documentary aspect intertwined with the story. All details concerning the rapist - the judges, dates, details of the acts of rape, details from the legal file of the verdict, appeals, newspaper cuttings, extracts from reports, interviews with television, etc. - are all completely correct. All these are real material. Nira also finds three other women who were raped by the same rapist. Their testimonies are presented as documentary material.