1/4 ROCHELLE KRICH Special to the Jewish News n edgy moodiness pervades Kadosh, Israeli film- maker Amos Gitai's jaundiced examina- tion of haredi, or fervently Orthodox, women oppressed by reli- gious extremism in Jerusalem. There is little nuance in this uneven film or in Gitai's intentions: to expose the fanati- cism of the haredi community and the misogyny inherent in their beliefs. A daughters in the name of Divine law. But are the images valid? Art attempts to underscore mes- sage. Though shot in color, the film is remarkably colorless, much like, one is led to assume, the drab lives of the haredi com- munity. The music grates. Jangling, whiningly insistent chords with traces of shtetl instrumentation foreshadow catastrophe. The paucity and starkness of the locations — the box-like synagogue; the cramped, dark bedrooms; the narrow, curved streets A Jaundiced Lens "Kadosh" presents a flawed, amateurish view of the haredi community. There are, however, inaccuracies and — suggest the meanness of a life misinformation. hemmed in by restrictions. There is no The film's title, which in Hebrew indulgence here, no beautiful furnish- means sacred, is heavily ings or objects unless they are sacra- ironic. In the opening mental, and rows and scene, Meir, a Torah schol- Above: Yael Abecassis, rows of holy texts. ar, recites numerous bless- left, as Rivka, with Against this back- ings to invest his every act Yoram Hattab as Meir, ground, Gitai presents in Amos Gitais with the sacred and the usual haredi stereo- "Kadosh," the first thanks God for not hav- types: the autocratic Israeli movie in 25 years ing made him a woman. father (he is a rabbi and a to be included in the What follows is image bully, too) intent on mar- main competition at the after jarring image of the rying off his resisting Cannes Film Festival. denigration haredi men daughter; the cowed wife inflict on their wives and (she runs the mikva, the ritual bath); the boorish suitor who Rochelle Krich is an award-winning Los substitutes zealousness for intellect; Angeles mystery writer, whose latest book, and not one, but two beautiful "Dead Air," was just released by Avon daughters, Rivka and Malka. Each is Books. The Orthodox novelist was profiled trapped by her traditional role and in last week's Jewish News. She appears at prevented from achieving happiness Adat Shalom's donor day event on Mayo and self-fulfillment. This review previously appeared in the After 10 years of a childless mar- Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles. riage, Rivka and Meir, still in love, share tender looks and long, brooding silences but are not intimate. Sex for mere pleasure, Meir informs her, is forbidden. Rivka is overwhelmed by the shame of her barrenness. Her mother blames her. Her father com- mands Meir to obey the law and take another wife. A childless marriage is pointless, a barren woman, useless. When Meir argues that Abraham did not abandon Sarah, the father-in-law counters that children are the haredim's weapon to vanquish the nonreligious. Malka, too, pays a heavy price. In love with an ex-haredi-turned-pop- singer, she flirts with rebellion but obeys her father and marries Yossef. The wedding is a rushed, joyless event. Even the mother is grim: she knows the wedding canopy promises no happiness. Later the bride weeps as she lops off her long hair (her sister's hair remains inexplicably unshorn). She lies stoical- ly on the Spartan marital bed and screams when Yossef, who prefaces his advances with prayers, quickly and brutally consummates their vows. This is a rape, not a marriage, and it sets the stage for the beating Yossef inflicts when he suspects Malka of infidelity. Meir is spineless, not man enough to de& his father-in-law (perhaps not man enough to father a child, a doc- tor suggests to Rivka). He takes another wife, and his mother-in-law, bending to her husband's will, must supervise the spiritual cleansing of the woman who will take her banished daughter's place. Rivka retreats into an island of despair and silence. Relief, Gitai ultimately shows, is possible only through escape of one form or another. These disturbing images of the helplessness of women, their sub- servience and victimization, are poten- tially powerful, but their power is diminished by the film's flaws. As art, the movie is bogged down by a jagged, amateurish quality and stretches of tedious silence, by puzzling gaps in the narrative, unanswered questions and an improbably melodra- matic ending. As social commentary, it is suspect and filled with inaccuracies. Just as the, rooms in the film are delib- erately narrow, so is the lens through which Gitai tells his story. That is my problem with Kadosh. The wedding night scene is a dis- torted caricature. Torah law forbids forced sex or abuse; it encourages lov- JAUNDICED LENS on page 106 Meital Barda, left, as Malka, with Sami Hori as Yaakov, in "Kadosh. SngO "Kadosh" director Amos Gitai is no stranger to controversy. NAOMI PFEFFERMAN Special to the Jewish News 11110 enowned Israeli director 11Amos Gitai acknowledges that his film Kadosh raises ire in segments of the observant com- munity. "It's critical of certain ele- ments of Jewish tradition that I consider to be reactionary," says the filmmaker, whose movie tells of two oppressed Orthodox women in Jerusalem's Mea Shearim. But its not a total denial. It's precise." Specifically, the film explores what Gitai calls the "great contra- diction" of all the world's great monotheistic religions: the subju- gation of women. And no he's not sorry that Kadosh doesn't offer more diverse portraits of observant women, "I don't think art is about balance," he says, fix- ing a reporter with laser-like brown eyes during an interview in Los Angeles. "Art cannot be politically negotiated." Gitai, one of Israel's few inter- nationally acclaimed filmmakers, has paid for his vision. Officials of the Quality Film Encouragement Fund in Israel refused to support the provocative movie at every level of production, always for "artistic reasons," he says. They recanted and granted Gitai $50,000 to complete his film only when Kadosh became the first Israeli movie in 25 years to be included in the main competition at Cannes, Gitai says. STRONG OPINIONS on page 107 31V 4/28 2000 105