As the adage goes, blood is thicker than water. Filmmaker Limor Pinhasov’s moving documentary, “A Working Mom,” goes a long way toward proving this.

In the film we meet Marisa, the working mother of the title. Pinhasov catches up with Marisa just as she’s returning home after toiling for 15 years in Tel Aviv just to support her children. Entrusting her young ones to the care of her parents, Marisa worked exhausting hour after hour each week to cover her two children’s meals abd education and to fulfill her dream of building a house for the three of them.

What follows upon Marisa’s return is the stuff that great dramas are made of, and it unfolds so seamlessly through Pinhasov’s sure-handed direction that at times, it takes a second to remember that you are in fact watching a documentary. When Marisa arrives, she finds her children treat her coldly, the house she has dreamed of is not at all what she was expecting, and her parents are very distrusting of her new Bolivian beau, even threatening to kill him over all the money that they’re sure he’s taken from her when it’s actually them who have squandered the money she sent for her children.

For all the film’s heartrending moments, Pinhasov also wisely gives his subjects room to breathe. At several different points during the film’s 75-minute running time, it’s the eyes of his subject that provide the most haunting and profound perspective into her thoughts.

Pinhasov’s film has been showered with plenty of much-deserved praise all around the world, from its acceptance into countless prestigious film festivals and its nomination for an Ophir award (Israel’s equivalent of the Oscars) for best documentary feature.

The Documentary Channel is proud to have Limor Pinhasov’s film screening here, and we hope that for lovers of dramas and human interest stories alike, you’ll tune in and find as much to love about “A Working Mom” as we do. You can catch it here all month, and as always, if you care to share your thoughts with us afterward, you can reach DOC HQ at

C.D.