"In times of need, and in times of tears, in times of joy and in times of fears . . . there is mom. The one person who is always there."
-- Heather Stillufsen
Asia begins as a typical mother-daughter drama where each is so busy and wrapped up in her own world that they have little time together. Asia (Alena Yiv) is a dedicated 35-year-old nurse who enjoys dancing, drinking, and sex with different partners. She is the single parent of a moody adolescent, Vika (Shira Haas), who spends her spare time at a local skate board park with her pot-smoking friend (Eden Halili) and secretly yearns to experience the mysteries of sex.
"A daughter may outgrow your lap, but she will never outgrow your heart."
-- Caitlin Houston
Their chilly relationship shifts dramatically when they learn that Vika has a degenerative disorder which wrecks havoc with her motor skills and eventually attacks and shuts down her breathing capacity. The two women reach out for each other on a visit to the beach where small tendrils of intimacy begin to draw them closer together. Vika has not told her mother that she is still a virgin and when Asia learns this, her surprising response is, "The only thing I ever got from a man is you."
"A daughter is a mother's gender partner, her closest ally in the family confederacy, an extension of herself. And mothers are their daughter's role model, their biological and emotional road map, the arbiter of all their relationships."
-- Victoria Segunda
Ruthy Pribar is the writer and director of this sensitively rendered Israeli drama. It is emotionally gratifying to witness the unusual directions love takes as this mother-daughter relationship is radically transformed. One involves the tender ministrations of a male trainee nurse (Tamir Mula) and the other is Vika's realization of her mother's unconditional love for her.