Director
Michal Aviad
(INVISIBLE)

Starring
Liron Ben-Shlush, Menashe Noy, Irit Sheleg and Oshri Cohen

This excellent film from Israel addresses a common and prolonged workplace issue that occurs mostly to women in contemporary fashion and with such analytical accuracy that will resonate many people around the world.

Married mother of three, Orna (Liron Ben-Shlush) is a dedicated and ambitious woman working in real estate development for her boss, Benny (Menashe Noy). At home, Orna’s husband, Ofer (Oshri Cohen) is becoming more reliant on the success and rising income of his wife’s employment as his newly established restaurant is struggling to survive. Benny is very quick to notice Orna’s talents and the resulting profitable outcomes, and quickly offers her a promotion that will have them working more closely together. Orna immediately accepts, but very soon into the partnership is subjected to unwanted and inappropriate comments and advancements that affect her professional and personal life.

WORKING WOMAN is a scrupulous study of an employer who has ulterior motives towards his good-willed and hard-working female employee, yet is supremely skilled at making his complimentary and generous acts seem the exact opposite. This screenplay co-written by director Michal Aviad takes the time necessary to chart the gaining and breaking of trust and the consequential changes to the dynamics of their working relationship. Throughout the film, both we and Benny clearly identify Orna’s needs and vulnerabilities, and witness her gratitude growing as those needs are deviously met. Simultaneously, we are seeing and Orna is experiencing occasional, yet escalating verbal commentary and certain behaviours that are ominous warning signs of sexual harassment and abuse. What will Orna do and will she do it in time before these are no longer signs? This is where WORKING WOMAN is less foreseeable in its trajectory and summons palpable tension as a result. Furthermore, there is some absorbing insight also shed into how Orna processes and copes with everything she is subject to and the toll that this matter takes in her personal life. It is this that becomes the focus of the film’s remaining minutes and I believe emphasises a few important actions in circumstances such as these that should never happen. Full stop.

4 stars

Viewer Discretion
MA15+ (A scene of strong sexual violence)

Trailer
WORKING WOMAN (ISHA OVEDET)

Moviedoc thanks Potential Films for the invite to the screening of this film.

WORKING WOMAN is released in cinemas throughout Australia from October 10th, 2019.

Review by Leigh for Moviedoc
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