Festivals & Awards:
Movie Reviews:
* « Shelach's film is powerful in its honesty. At no point does the family attempt to sugarcoat reality or wrap it in hidden poetic meanings that might obscure the raw truth: that living alongside someone with a serious mental illness can be a grueling, painful existence. There is nothing romantic about the illness itself, and the film shows this clearly. Yet because the people facing it are gifted and creative and because the film also weaves in voiceover excerpts from Neri's side of the story as written in their book, their artistic expression offers the viewer a way to empathize, understand and feel the emotional upheavals the illness brings.» Jerusalem Film Festival Reviews: "Crazy Spring": An intimate diary about mental illness / Shany Littman / Haaretz
* « "Crazy Spring" is the most normal film there is, precisely in its human ability to translate immense pain into a moving creation. It is a film that celebrates, searches, questions, and looks at reality in a courageous way – one that every person, wherever they are, needs to see. Even when it deals with difficult issues and high emotions, it has human love, hope, and an embrace that passes from one family to another. Shelah, a filmmaker with many years of experience, manages to skillfully navigate all the raw materials and emotional strengths, and distill from them a precise, moving, and well-crafted story. His ability to navigate between turbulent events and build a coherent structure from them, one that allows us to get closer to the depths of Hanan's turbulent soul, is worthy of appreciation.» "Crazy Spring": Holding Emotions Through the Camera / Liron Rachel Erez / Portfolio (Hebrew)
* « Thus, two works of art touch one another and remind us of the fragility of life and the power of art. The hand of a master artist who handled the materials in a clever and sensitive way is very prominent. The fragility of the home. The fact that at any given moment it can fall apart and crumble. Unintentionally, in these moments, the film becomes a kind of parable about the lives of all of us here in the last two years. About their fragility. About the fact that at any moment something can come and crumble them from the outside or from within. » Only when the film based on the book was released did I realize how wonderful the book is / Udi Ben Seadia / Walla (Hebrew)
Director's Statement:
This film began as a personal journey. Hanan, my nephew, was a gifted young musician when mental illness struck. As his condition worsened, his mother Neri – my sister – asked me to help document their lives. I gave the family a video camera, and they began filming from within. Crazy Spring offers an unfiltered, intimate look into a household living with mental illness - not only its impact on the individual, but on the entire family. It’s about pain, love, and the power of creativity as a way to cope and connect. By choosing not to hide, Neri and her family make a quiet but powerful statement: there is no shame in struggling.
Chen Shelach
