Recipient of a 2025 JFI Completion Grant
The film follows my search for Yedida, my aunt who vanished as a five-month-old baby from the Beit Lid transit camp 70 years ago. My grandmother spent her life searching—now I continue her quest. Through rare archival footage and never heard before testimonies from nurses and care givers who testified in front of the state committees, a painful contradiction emerges between institutional narratives and maternal grief. I discover my grandmother’s forgotten testimony, and with it, a buried family history. Official records say Yedida died; yet my grandmother swore she was healthy as an apple. Was it a tragic error or something darker? As I dig deeper, the truth blurs, testing my family, my resolve—and my heart.
Description provided by grantee.
Israela Shaer Meoded is an award-winning filmmaker and lecturer who has directed over eight short and feature films, screened at worldwide festivals. Her academic research focuses on marginalized voices in Israeli cinema. Her first thesis at Tel Aviv University explored pioneering women directors and led to the rediscovery and restoration of *Before Tomorrow* (Alida Gera), the first Israeli feature directed by a woman. She is currently writing her second thesis on Mizrahi women’s political cinema of the 1970s. Shaer teaches at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design and the Sam Spiegel Film and Television School in Jerusalem.