The Artist's Daughter: Oil On Canvas

Documentary | Israel | 2022 | Director: Margarita Linton, Yaniv Linton | Hebrew and Russian with English subtitles | 59 minutes

Showing May 17, 2023, matinee 2 pm at the Berney Theatre

Virtual tickets also

The Artist’s Daughter: Oil on Canvas, is a lovely, delicate documentary. The film opens with extreme close-ups of thick strokes of oil paint, then pulls back to show portraits of an observant Jewish man. While we see the exhibition of paintings on the austere white walls of a large museum in Tel Aviv, as a voice-over we hear a woman’s voice leaving a phone message. She says, “I see you at all different ages - I realize how little I know you.”

The voice is that of documentary maker Margarita Linton, and the message is for her father, Vladimir Lensky. He grew up in Russia, was fired from factory jobs several times for drawing instead of working, and then devoted his life to art. At the age of 31 he made aliyah and became, eventually, observant. Judging by her jeans and short sleeved shirt, it is clear that his daughter is not observant herself. Rita is inspired by his exhibit of self-portraits to make a film about her father, a man she rarely communicates with.

Surprisingly, the first interview of the film is not with her father, but with her mother, telling their love story and the story of their separation. She interviews her brother, the curator of the exhibit, a young painter…but all the while she is attempting to meet with her father and interview him. The film takes on a Waiting for Godot air of suspense – when will she manage to meet with her father and hear his story from his perspective?

The painter is quoted as saying, “A painter is like a tree, there’s only one, and women and children are like the leaves, there are plenty.” In the process of making the film, Rita explores her own life and emotions. Rita is not at the centre of her father’s story, but she values her own.

I found myself amazed by the end of the film, which at one point became disorienting in a fascinating way. There is sweetness here, and pain. This beautiful, quiet film is worthwhile viewing.