Kol Ma She'Yesh Li

Let me start this post by saying that I don't cry. I hate to do it. I find it irritating, embarassing, and messy. With that in mind, I'd like to tell you about a movie that I watched two years ago. As part of Women's History Month my college brought an Israeli female filmmaker to campus to screen her film and talk about it. The film was "Kol Ma She'Yesh Li" or in English, "All That I've Got."

The premise of the movie is this: An old woman dies of natural causes, and when someone dies they are sent to one of two cruise ships that will take them to the afterlife, the one for those who die of natural causes, and the one for those whose lives are cut unnaturally short. When she boards the ship she finds that her first love, who died at 21, or so, in a car accident has been waiting for her. Now she must make a choice, either to become her 20-or-so year old self and live forever with him (Uri), or stay as an old lady forever. Here's the catch: if she chooses Uri it will be as if she died with him, she won't remember anything of her life after that, her husband, her kids, nothing. If she doesn't choose Uri, then he is stuck on the boat forever in limbo.

Just as she is about to make the decision, her husband gets on the boat. Turns out he committed suicide so that she wouldn't have to die alone (and as a suicide his life was technically "cut short"). She gets something like three hours where she is in her 20 year old body, and has her memories during which time she has to choose.

I spent the entire movie weeping. Start to finish. I won't ruin the ending for you (if you can find this movie anywhere PLEASE let me know), but let me just say that you don't know, until the last minute, who she'll choose.