‘Life Without Credit‘, the film written and directed by Tom Shoval, is powerful and uncomfortable, and it is precisely this refusal to offer any refuge, even momentary, in ‘feel good’ that makes it a unique film in the landscape of Israeli cinema. The original title has a somewhat more comprehensive meaning than the one in the translation for international distribution. More accurately, it might have been translated as ‘life without coverage’. Indeed, the film’s main heroine has reached a point in her life where she finds herself without any support, without protection, alone against the world. She is a victim of the system, but the film is not a story of defeat.
They say that homeless people live on the edges of the society. Libby, the heroine of the film ‘Life Without Credit‘, lives beyond the edges of society. For her, the status of homeless is actually a liberation, since she escaped from a mental treatment clinic. She doesn’t drink, she doesn’t eat, she refuses to wear anything but paper clothes. Is she real, how does she survive? From her last name we can guess that she is a first or maybe second generation immigrant from the former Soviet Union, but her Hebrew lacks any accent. Libby is looking for her brother, the one who took away her freedom by subjecting her to forced confinement in mental health institutions. She tells us, sometimes in theater-like monologues as few listen to her, that she was once a valued professional, a crane operator, that she suffered an accident that took away her ability to work. Can the ugly, dirty, repulsive woman dressed in paper rags be believed? Or should we rather trust those who deprived her of her freedom, accusing her of serious crimes? For sure, she does not seem to be ‘normative’ according to the rules and criteria of the society around. Her aspirations, however, are those of any of us – freedom and social status – all these lost, perhaps, as a result of an enormous injustice.
Writer and director Tom Shoval, together with actress Dana Ivgy, created a character that we rarely see on screen. She is one of those creatures that many of us, if we meet her on the street, avoid or cross to the other side. That is why, in order to bring her closer to us, Shoval films Libby almost constantly in close-up. It is a great challenge for the actress and the cameraman, and they succeed wonderfully. The makeup has managed to completely change the beautiful actress’s physiognomy, in a style that recalls Charlize Theron’s transformation in ‘Monster’. Her acting performance is extraordinary and we already have a serious candidate for the lead female acting performance award at the next edition of the Ophir Awards (the Israeli ‘Oscars’). Menashe Noy also has an extremely impressive supporting role with a character that in a way mirrors Libby’s destiny. Libby’s odyssey takes place in the director’s familiar Tel Aviv and its surroundings, but it is that part of the metropolis that is dirty, dark and dangerous – the one that many of us avoid, especially at night. The emotions caused by the characters’ gestures of solidarity and normality are amplified even more when they happen. Humanity also survives on the edge and beyond the edge of normative society. The way in which it expresses itself differs.
My only major objection is related to the ending of the film. Tom Shoval managed to get us closer to his character and the challenge was not small. As a viewer, I was able to see and understand the world from the point of view of the woman who fights to win back her freedom and dignity, against all odds and perhaps even against reality itself. Just when the film seemed to end (I won’t reveal how), a new final sequence begins, 7-8 minutes long, with the intention of clarifying what we have seen so far, with references to some cases from Israeli current events in recent years. The perspective is no longer that of the heroine but of those around her. I did not feel that this addition was essential. What was important about Libby, about her life and her struggle to regain her identity, I had already understood. And anyway, there is no chance of forgetting her quickly.