Mother and daughter Asia (Alena Yiv) and Vika (Shira Haas) are more like roommates than family members. Russian immigrants living in Israel, young mom Asia works as a nurse and home health aide, blowing off steam at local bars, while teenage Vika is content to hang with the bong-ripping skater boys. It’s in this easy, yet empty, coexistence that we meet the pair at the beginning of writer-director Ruthy Pribar’s remarkable debut, ASIA. Already an award-winning film in Israel, where it won best picture at the Israeli Academy Awards, Pribar’s humane and heartbreaking drama is beautifully photographed and performed. It is a loving, warm, and even sexy film about death and dying that is teeming with life.