Veronica Tetelbaum left Kharkiv for Israel as a child and has now made a film about overcoming trauma and finding oneself. A conversation about emigration, language, and queer cinema.

With emotionally charged cinematography that wouldn’t look out of place in the 1920s of F. W. Murnau and John Ford, and an empathetic narrative of an outsider reminiscent of the films of Kelly Reichardt, Houses is a lean but piercing mood piece of dislocation. Tetelbaum’s poetic and heartfelt debut confronts the past while looking for a safe haven for the future.

BERLINALE 2025: Israeli filmmaker Veronica Nicole Tetelbaum creates one of the most impressive features in the Berlinale’s Forum this year...

"Houses", (BATIM) the debut feature film by director Veronica Nicole Tetelbaum, simultaneously echoes both the familiar and the foreign, making it a unique cultural document.

Nicole shoots to kill, gently. Small and delicate fragments of life, private and particular, and universal (for all) alike.