By Rachel Galvin

Gritty and raw, the movie “10 Kilos” delivers. Directed by Doron Eran, the film is based on the true story of Sharon Yitzhaki, an Israeli woman who gets hoodwinked by a man into being a drug mule without her knowledge and she is the one who gets busted while in Bolivia. While the law men she deals with are harsh, she finds the women in the Mira Flores prison to be much more brutal.

A naive 20-year-old she has to suffer the slings and arrows of her outrageous fortune as she faces a possible 20 years in this alien new world. She has to work to manipulate the legal system and the women’s prison at the same time. She makes new friends with their own issues and finds herself in a role she never could have predicted. Somehow, she ends up becoming everything she was framed for and she has to claw her way back to find her strength after spiraling out of control.

The actors in this film deliver multi-layered performances with Daniella Kertesz as Sharon being the most gripping. Watching her transform from a lovesick innocent to an icy queen with the fierceness of a lioness alone is worth the price of admission. Seeing what befalls everyone in the system is equally compelling. It is hard to believe it is a true story.

The women who play her friends, who have become her family, also deliver powerful roles. Maya Eshet pulls off a dramatic role as a junkie while Lioz Levi, as Terry, who is transgender, is the stable one.

Her nemesis, Amparo, is played by Luna Mansour, who delivers a heart-stopping evil performance as she controls the prison with an iron grip.

The director has created a winning film in “10 Kilos.” The film, told in Spanish and some Hebrew with subtitles, is now in select theaters with more to follow. It is distributed by Breaking Glass Pictures.