Yet Yael strongly disputes this reading of her work. “I am not ambivalent about my mother,” she says. “I had a fantastic relationship with my father and I feel like I have a fantastic relationship with my mother.” Her father also travelled a lot for his work, but “I always had the feeling that if, at any time of the day or night, I had said, ‘I need you here,’ they would have dropped everything to help me.” While conceding that she wishes her mother could see “the sacrifices that she made and we made as a result of her choices”, she is adamant that she doesn’t think her mother should have made any different decisions.
Reactions to this aspect of the film have been “very polarised”. Some people have told Yael she was so lucky to have Ada as a mother; others expressed sympathy for her childhood. “That’s why I love documentaries,” she says. “My hope is that people will talk to one another afterwards and be surprised.”
The film was originally released in 2024, at what Yael describes as “a terrible moment”, since “independent films rely on festivals and word of mouth”, and many festivals want to avoid the aggravation that now greets any film about Israel. Yet she has been overwhelmed by the positive response. Jewish audiences have been delighted to see a film about “an Israeli they can feel proud of, who is not in any way a propagandist – she feels authentic, critical and extraordinary”. Perhaps even more cheering is the way the film can reach across the political divide. When a screening at a New York university was greeted by a peaceful protest, the director was thrilled when someone came up afterwards to tell her: “I am quite aligned with those protestors, but I just want you to know, I loved your film.”
By Matthew Reisz
Header photo: Still from Ada: My Mother the Architect © Salty Features
Ada: My Mother the Architect is available to stream now on Apple TV, Amazon Prime, Google Play and more. adamymotherthearchitect.com
This article appears in the Summer 2026 issue of JR.
