'OR' A TRAGIC YET SIMPLISTIC TALE.

Byline: Glenn Whipp Film Critic

AN EARLY candidate for the year's most depressing movie, ``Or (My Treasure)'' tells a sad story of predetermination about a young woman trying to keep her mother from returning to a life of prostitution. Keren Yedaya's starkly photographed first feature is as much a social statement as a character study - Yedaya already donated her Camera d'Or prize money (won last year at Cannes for best first film) toward establishing a halfway house for women looking to leave prostitution - giving the movie an inevitability that is sometimes as inexplicable as it is disheartening.

Or (Dana Ivgy) is a sweet, resourceful teen girl living in Tel Aviv, where she goes to school and works an array of odd jobs. Her 40-ish mother, Ruthie (Ronit Elkabetz), has just been released from the hospital when we first meet her, apparently convalescing from one of the hazards of her chosen line of work.

Understandably, Or, who has assumed the mother role in the relationship, doesn't want her mom to turn tricks anymore. She finds Ruthie a cleaning job and, on those occasions when she has to leave the apartment, locks Ruthie inside. Meanwhile, in her spare time, Or enjoys pressing the flesh with the boys in a local park and, more seriously, with Ido (Meshar Cohen), the son of an upstairs neighbor.

Yedaya captures all of this in an extremely detached style. The movie has no music and, more often than not, Yedaya shoots the scenes by placing a camera at a fixed point in the room with the characters moving in and out of the picture. These unadorned methods give ``Or'' an intensity that gradually builds to its tragic conclusion, which, though we see it coming, still manages to devastate.

The question remains, though: Is the ending convincing? The film's third- act turning point is prompted by a visit from Ido's mother who, quite understandably, has some concerns about his son's relationship with Or. Ruthie is silent on the matter and everything goes to hell in a handbasket from there.

But does Or really feel her options are that limited? Does Yedaya? Yes and yes. Those convictions give the movie a simplistic social viewpoint that limits the force of its emotional wallop. In that respect, ``Or'' gets under your skin in more ways than one.

Glenn Whipp, [phone]

glenn.whipp(at)dailynews.com

OR (MY TREASURE) - Three stars

(Not rated: strong sexual content, language)

Starring: Ronit Elkabetz, Dana Ivgy.

Director: Keren Yedaya.

Running time: 1 hr. 40 min.

Playing: Laemmle's Town Center 5 in Encino; Laemmle's Music Hall in Beverly Hills.

In a nutshell: Devastating drama that loses points for simplistic social viewpoint. In Hebrew with English subtitles.