How To Swim
2018 · 15m · Israel
Directed by Noa Gusakov
A heavily pregnant woman, still grieving her mother's death, tricks an older lady into spending a day with her in search of maternal wisdom.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
The premise is sweet enough to make you suspicious—grief + pregnancy + maternal stand-in should be maudlin, but Gusakov refuses the obvious emotional payoff, which is either bold or frustrating depending on your tolerance for films that withhold.
A formally assured chamber piece that trusts its two-hander structure and the tonal balance between comedy and elegy; Gusakov's restraint places it squarely in the lineage of character-driven European shorts that let silence do the work.
The genius move is casting the older woman as a stranger rather than a substitute—that refusal to close the loop emotionally means every moment of connection has to be *earned* rather than handed over, and it's the specificity of that structural choice that makes the whole thing breathe.