By Valerie Milano
Palm Springs, CA (The Hollywood Times) 6/25/23 – One of the short films that screened at this week’s Palm Springs International Festival of Short Films 2023 was Noam Argov’s Sulam (Ladder, in English & Hebrew, 11 min.). Noam is a third-year film student at the NYU Tisch School of the Arts and just became the winner of the Student Film Award at this year’s Palm Springs Short Film Festival. In Sulam, which is the Hebrew word for “ladder,” Argov encapsulates the complex relationship that first-generation immigrant children experience with their parents who are not used to American culture and the language. Many children of immigrant parents attempt to assimilate to “be normal,” unaware that their cultural upbringing will be far more important in the long term. Yet without the maturity to understand why these divides exist, an individual may hold resentment towards the people who love them most.
In my interview with Noam Argov, she explained that she did base her film on some personal experiences as an immigrant, growing up with her parents who she as a young person hoped they would assimilate easily to American culture. She felt “ashamed of her own mother as a kid” but later in maturing, she became to “empathize with her” more. The film paints a picture of co-dependency between a single mother and her daughter. “As a first-generation immigrant kid, you are often more like a parent to your own parents” in negotiating the subtitles of American culture and the language. It is a “dynamic that many immigrants/ young people experience with their parents.” It is not easy “having to be strong and supportive for one’s family in a way that child usually don’t have to do.”
Asked about packing in a lot in a 10-minute film, Noam Argov explained that in her style of filmmaking, she likes to “jump into a scene as quickly as possible and get out of there as quickly as possible.” “Packing in the emotions” is a by-product of that stylistic choice. Interesting as it is to write dialogue, there is much to be said with words in a film – as is evidenced in the final scene of Sulam.
As a director, Noam Argov brings out the more subtle nuance in the situation, which quickly establishes the divide between the mother and daughter. The mother (Mor Cohen) needs help upkeeping the house, especially with a water leak in the ceiling from the roof above. The daughter Alma (Oriah Elgrabli) needs to get to school for an important math exam and is worried about being late for that. The two argue about how to proceed, but Alma gives in and reluctantly accompanies her mother to Ace Hardware store in search of a ladder. The ladder could be considered a metaphor with some Biblical resonances of Jacob’s ladder, but I did not get around to asking Noam about that.
The leaking roof and her mother’s determination to get a ladder are the pretext for this short tale which exposes the divide between priorities and assumptions. Rather than help her mother, Alma (played by Elgrabli) wishes to establish her own friends and build her own life. With convincing natural acting, we can easily read her frustration. She feels that her mother depends on her entirely too much. So, she literally walks away when her mother needs her most as a translator.
Diving into the complicated emotions of the immigrant experience can be difficult. Yet even when your characters come from a particular ethnic or regional background, Sulam seem to capture both the frustration and the resolution of such feelings. I found this film touching universal in the way it captures these moments and hits home to anyone who suffers strife with their parents.
Director Noam Argov is known for the award-winning short Let Me Assist You (2022) as well as My Dear Kyrgyzstan (2019) and Neighbors (2021). Mor Cohen had acted in A Tale of Love and Darkness (2015) and This Is Our Home (2021). Oriah Elgrabli is a young American actress based in New York City. She is best known for her performance in John Mulaney & The Sack Lunch Bunch on Netflix. She made her Off-Broadway debut in the premiere of Round Went The Wheel as well as appearing in musical theater productions, including the title role in Matilda.