IMA HOZERET HABAYTA (A WORKING MOM)

In 1990 22-year-old Marisa Villozial left her home in Bolivia to seek employment in the West, leaving her two young children in the care of her parents. For 15 years she worked illegally as a cleaner in Israel, getting up at 5am every day and sending every spare penny back home to her family. Finally in 2005 Marisa decided it was time to return to Boliviaand anxiously boarded a plane back home, unsure if she would even recognise her son and daughter who in her absence had grown into teenagers.

Marisa's homecoming was not exactly the happy occasion she might have dreamed of as she found that what she had worked so hard for was little more than an illusion. Her children treated her with contempt and insisted on calling her 'auntie' instead of mother. Meanwhile the house that she had sent money to build turned out to be little more than a shell. This personal family drama of how a mother gave up everything for her family, only to lose it in the process reveals a hidden reality of the global economy.

"We met Marisa ten years ago. She cleaned the film production office where we worked. She was always quiet and pleasant, always efficient. We heard rumours that she had children and that she sent the majority of her income to her family in Bolivia. But we never asked. Perhaps we didn't want to know. At the beginning of 2005, Marisa told us that she was through with her time in Israel. She longed for her home and for her children. As she explained her story to us, we, as filmmakers, saw how Marisa's personal drama could touch the hearts of so many, and challenge the consciences of those who rely on immigrant labour without wanting to grasp its true price…" Limor Pinhasov Ben Yosef & Yaron Kaftori Ben Yosef