, an award-winning account of one family's struggle to regain normalcy following the death of the father, will screen during the eighth Bermuda International Film Festival (BIFF).

Actress Hani Furstenberg was awarded Best Supporting Actress at the Israel Film Awards for her role as Tami, a 15 year old coming to grips with her identity as a young adult. That arena also lauded the piece with Best Film, Best Screenplay and Best Director, while it received a Don Quixote Award Special Mention at the Berlin Film Festival and an international critics prize at the Chicago Film Festival.

"It's always stressful when you make a film, how people are going to react," said the 25-year-old actress of the film's achievement. "You never know if people will accept the movie or not but I was immediately drawn to because of the script."

Filmed in Israel, the feature was directed by Joseph Cedar, an American-born Orthodox Jew.

"Joseph Cedar utilises personal insight and poetic storytelling to craft a thoughtful and beautiful love story intertwined with the intimate struggles of a 42-year-old widow facing her newly single life," said a BIFF spokesperson.

"This essentially character-driven film is set in 1981 against the backdrop of the early Israeli settler movement. Rachel Gerlik is a woman who finds it difficult to let go; her fear of loss of control is preventing her from her own personal happiness and that of her two teenage daughters.

"Although longing for the warmth and support of the 'tribal campfire' Rachel ultimately discovers that sometimes when you get too close you get burned. This award-winning film, with exquisite performances by the lead actors, will stay with the viewer, like smouldering embers, which refuse to die out."

Furstenberg will accompany the film to Bermuda and will participate in BIFF's Chats With . . . panel discussion on Monday, speaking with Franny Armstrong, the director of , and Letebele Masemola-Jones, the executive producer of . Jennifer Wood of magazine will moderate.

Speaking from Los Angeles, Ms Furstenberg said she was a bit surprised that the director had been interested in casting a 25 year old to play the role of Tami.

"I read the script before I knew too much about the project," she said. "I was quite surprised they were calling me for a 15 year old but I'd fallen in love with my character the minute I read it. It's about a coming of age ? a 15- or 16-year-old religious girl finding her own identity."

Still, she was unsure she'd nailed the part until three weeks before filming started, the actress said. "I was sitting at home with her trying to think who they'd cast when, three weeks before they started filming, the director called me and said, 'What do you think? Do you think you could do it?' I love it. I feel like I'm 15 or 16 and people usually mistake me for being (that age) anyway. I love playing kids."

A working actress, Ms Furstenberg's talent spans theatre, television and film. She spends most of her time in Israel, where she was born. "When I was six weeks old, we moved to New York," she explained. "I lived there until I was 16 and then we moved back to Israel. I was there for eight years and moved back to New York about a year and a half ago."

Never having visited the island, Ms Furstenberg said she was looking forward to the trip. Although the director usually makes such pilgrimages, because his wife is pregnant, the actress will be making the trip on her own.

q will screen at the Liberty Theatre tomorrow, at 6.30 p.m. and at the Little Theatre on Monday, at 6.30 p.m. Ms Furstenberg's panel discussion will take place at the BIFF Front Room in the Number 1 Passenger Terminal on Front Street. All panels run from 12.15 p.m. through 1.30 p.m.