"In depicting these narratives, the film navigates the moral and ethical minefield the death penalty has created within the justice system, while also acknowledging the complexities of life, law, justice, and human nature. As there is never one answer to such complex questions, I believe filmmaking can raise the questions in a simple way, as emotions are involved. Having said all that, this is not a film only about the death penalty, but all of the events that have led our subjects to this point, including their socioeconomic circumstances, their personal/emotional histories, the fact that women are the fastest increasing population in prisons, the unsolved dialectics between a victim and a victimizer, and the harsh statistic saying 88 percent of women in prisons are women who were sexually assaulted or abused in other horrible ways. Even though this film, and the making of it, was a demanding situation to jump into, the stories of the women are stories of love, of all sorts: love that drives you crazy, love that builds your life, and love that sets you free."
Hagar Ben-Asher, an Israeli screenwriter, director and actress, graduated in 2007 from Tel Aviv's Minshar for Art - School and Center. Her graduation film, Mish'olim (Pathways), was selected by Cannes' Cinéfondation and won the best short film award at Stockholm's Film Festival. Four years later she made her first feature film, Ha-Notenet (The Slut), also screened at Cannes, at the International Critics' Week. In 2016 she wrote and directed Haporetzet (The Burglar), but didn't act in it. This year, her film Dead Women Walking screened at the Tribeca Film Festival in the Viewpoints section.
