Nir Bergman's "Broken Wings" is a moving drama about a family's attempts to overcome the loss of their father, and the tensions which surface as grief is faced in differing ways. The Israeli director talks about how his debut feature - the first film to be released in BBC Four and Optimum Releasing's Discoveries Season - draws on his own experiences.

What was the inspiration for "Broken Wings"?

It came from a time where my family was totally broken. I was ten-years-old and my parents were divorced. The thing is, in the 70s in Haifa, divorce was not something so common, and people really didn't know how to deal with it. It's not like today. I was left with my mum. My sister went out of the house, my father went to Tel Aviv - which was like miles away at that period of time. It was like being total abandoned.

My short film ["Sea Horses"] was about that period exactly - it was about a kid waiting for his father to come home - but in "Broken Wings" I didn't want to deal with divorce, because I don't feel divorce is such an issue today. So the decision came that the dad was dead. I knew the inner pain of the characters, but while writing I had to understand what it is to lose a father permanently.

Did you do much research into the grief process?

I did a lot of research, especially understanding the different stages of grief that each member of the family is going through. I decided at the start that I would take a place where each character is hurt most. Maya, the heroine, is hurt in the heart. She has guilt feelings and she really wants to depart from the grief but can't. When someone dies, you have guilt feelings just to live - to eat, to make love... it's harder for you. I took [her twin brother] Yair as the one who is hurt most in the head. And I took the mother as the one who is hurt most in the body.

Given the film's autobiographical nature, which character is most like you?

The two boys. Yair has these intellectual theories about how grown-up life is so stupid and dumb, which I can still identify with today. I find it hard sometimes to understand the way we are living, because we have so little time on this planet and we're wasting so much time on nonsense.

And the younger brother, Ido, gives himself 'courage tests' because he's so scared. When you lose your father, there's no one to defend you, so he's waiting for his older brother. These courage tests he's doing, I know them very well. I was walking on very thin lines as a kid. As a grown-up I could watch myself doing all these stunts, and understand them as a boy with big problems.

Have your family seen the film, and was it a cathartic experience?

The whole writing of the film was an experience for my family, because things came out. I talked to my mother, I talked to my father, I talked to my sister - who lives abroad - so everything became a huge phone bill, talking, trying to understand what was going on in this period of time when our family was shaped. I think my mum and my dad are really proud of the film, even though they understand where it comes from, and they understand the problems and take responsibility for things that happened. But they're happy I didn't cut my wrists. It was family therapy, the whole film.

Although the film's set in Israel, there's no mention of the Palestinian conflict. If you were making the film today, almost three years into the second Intifada, would the film be any different?

No. The first Intifada was, of course, before the film was written, but we live in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict from the day we are born. We've grown up with it. As Israelis, we grow up to think that our country is more important than ourselves. You can see it in Israeli cinema all the time - it's always 'we': "We are like this" and "We are like that". This film is not saying "we", it's saying "I". This is about people, it's not about the country.

When the Israeli/Palestinian conflict is solved, we'll be starting to deal with lots of problems that we are putting aside all the time. Things won't be so nice in Israel, because we have such great problems that we don't deal with. Because we say "We have our security problems", and our grandparents told that to our parents. With "Broken Wings", I've tried to fix things at home - fixing something small. But I think if we fixed more small things, then maybe big things would be fixed as well. I really believe that.

"Broken Wings" is now out at UK cinemas. It will subsequently receive its TV premiere as part of Discoveries on BBC Four.