Feminist hell. The wife of a Talmudic scholar in the extreme-Orthodox section of modern Jerusalem has given him no offspring after ten years of marriage. And: "The only task of a daughter of Israel is to bring children into the world." Divorce is mandated. (Surely not womandated.) In a subplot, the wife's sister is married off to another Talmudist in lieu of the smoldering pop singer she has long fancied. The documentary background of director Amos Gitai is apparent in his appetite for straight information: the credits sequence, detailing the scholar's morning ritual of dressing and prayer, is a documentary unto itself. And the penchant for protracted static single-takes, for simple spare compositions, for quiet harmonious colors, lends the proceedings a sobriety as well as monotony. (The top-drawer cameraman, Renato Berta, has worked with Resnais, Malle, Rohmer, Godard.) At times the filmmaker's embrace of the stark staring anguish of his women approaches the Bergmanesque. The actresses, Yael Abecassis and Meital Barda, seem fully deserving of it. (1999) — Duncan Shepherd
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