A Waste of Space

Description: Three Israeli teenagers are followed through their last year of foster care and transition to independence. On their 18th birthday, the foster families and the children have to decide how to continue their relationship. Coming from varied and dysfunctional biological families, the two boys and a girl have been placed with their adoptive foster parents relatively late in childhood. The film shows them interacting with their new families and in two of the cases with their biological parents (Michelle’s parents are deceased.) The three also attend a workshop with a social worker and develop friendships with each other.

Merits: One of the more impressive achievements of this documentary is its exploration of the relationships between the children and their adoptive families. Eitan and his foster parents affirm their joint desire to continue their relationship. Michelle’s foster care was reluctantly assumed by her school principal who became aware of the girl’s predicament. Now she and her husband are gently prodding her to assume her independence, a move she would rather delay. By contrast Oshri’s foster parents seem to be deeply attached to him emotionally while he remains non committal. Some things are left unsaid but there is plenty here to make us want to root for the youths and appreciate their biological and foster families.

Rating: Suitable for all audiences.

We Were the Others

The Three Yossi