Sweet Mud

2006

1h 41m

Drama

List

83%

12 Reviews

Tomatometer

89%

500+ Ratings

Audience Score

Dvir (Tomer Steinhof) lives on a progressive kibbutz with his older brother, Eyal, (Pini Tavger) and their mother, Miri (Ronit Yudkevitz). Miri is mentally ill, has spent time in an institution and is not particularly liked by the other members of their commune. Things get even worse when Miri invites her boyfriend (Henri Garcin), a non-Jew, to move in. Meanwhile, Dvir is busy studying for his Bar Mitzvah, which proves to be a particularly arduous task.

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Bruce DeMara

Toronto Star

An appealing coming-of-age tale that takes on the difficult issues of mental illness and conformity.

Rated: 3/4

Jun 15, 2007

Full Review

Rick Groen

Globe and Mail

If [director] Shaul means for his indictment to have some contemporary resonance, to hint at conformist pressures in the current Israeli state, he fails to give us any of the blocks needed to build that thesis.

Rated: 2/4

Jun 15, 2007

Full Review

Kirk Honeycutt

Hollywood Reporter

This is a film from the heart, from a firsthand familiarity that yields conflicted emotions over the gap between an ideal and its realization.

Jan 19, 2007

Full Review

Hannah Brown

Jerusalem Post

The plot may sound familiar, but director/writer Dror Shaul makes it fresh with his vivid and often bitterly funny depiction of the film's setting, a kibbutz in the 1970s.

Mar 22, 2016

Full Review

Daniel M. Kimmel

The Jewish Advocate

If the film is an indictment of anything it is how the collective experience of the kibbutz is at odds with family loyalties.

Nov 9, 2007

Full Review

Prairie Miller

WBAI Radio

Sweet Mud holds within its delicately wrought, keenly insightful grasp, the illuminating convergence of political reality and the individual in a personal struggle to transcend the constraints of the human condition.

Oct 19, 2007

Full Review

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Audience Member

Siempre es grato ver lo que hacen en otros paÃses. Conocer su percepciÃ³n del mundo. Esta cinta, al menos para mÃ, es tan rica en su construcciÃ³n, adaptada en la tradiciÃ³n de estos Kipputz que personalmente no conocÃa y que parece ser como un experimento de sociedad utÃ³pica (comunista...el comunismo no existe) y lo que puede llegar a provocar. AdemÃ¡s, los personajes fueron exquisitamente bien dibujados y me parece grandioso el trabajo que Dror Shaul hizo con Tomer y su personaje...tan lleno de matices, tan enternecedor, tan lleno de luz en un mundo nublado. Una fotografÃa delicada, viva, hermosa y una historia que te parte en dos...cuando todos deciden callar el loco es el que habla y tiene la razÃ³n aunque para los demÃ¡s sea locura...... Gran cinta.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/20/23

Full Review

Audience Member

The film is about the life of a family living in Israel on a kibbutz. Dvir youngest son plays a strong character. I didn't know anything about Kibbutz. Now I know. What a sad story and sad that people were there.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

02/05/23

Full Review

Audience Member

A heartbreaking coming of age tale, where a boy trying to secretly orchestrate his mentally ill mother's love life fails to avert tragedy.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/13/23

Full Review

Audience Member

This movie is disturbing a few levels, but now I understand what a kubbutz is which i didnt before. i did not like this movie at all besides that. gross, horrible and deoressing thats all i have to say but id warn you not to watch it or youll be scar-ed i still have flash backs and it creeps me out. :P

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

02/15/23

Full Review

Audience Member

ok, the film starts with the boy watching the kibbutz janitor getting a blow job from a cow... then the scene in which the guy kills the boy's dog and puts his body in the fridge... the scene in wich the boy sees his mom having an orgy with a bunch of guys...his mom was very disturbing, it's painful to to watch this boy try to make his mom get back to normal... so overall this is a very disturbing movie....i guess i'll never be the same after watching this movie, my innocence is gone...

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

01/23/23

Full Review

Audience Member

A movie that got stuck in my head, deep, layered and beautiful Thank you Tor and Buster filmfestival..

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

02/24/23

Full Review

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Dror Shaul

Director

Tomer Steinhof

Dvir

Henri Garcin

Stephan

Shai Avivi

Avraham

Gal Zaid

Shimshon

Sharon Zuckerman

Etty

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Synopsis

Dvir (Tomer Steinhof) lives on a progressive kibbutz with his older brother, Eyal, (Pini Tavger) and their mother, Miri (Ronit Yudkevitz). Miri is mentally ill, has spent time in an institution and is not particularly liked by the other members of their commune. Things get even worse when Miri invites her boyfriend (Henri Garcin), a non-Jew, to move in. Meanwhile, Dvir is busy studying for his Bar Mitzvah, which proves to be a particularly arduous task.

Director: Dror Shaul
Producer: Hideo Okuda, Makoto Ueda
Screenwriter: Dror Shaul
Production Co: Cinephil
Genre: Drama
Original Language: English
Runtime: 1h 41m
Sound Mix: Dolby Digital