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THE BEST
OF BETH EL

STRONG OPINIONS from page 105

"That was sweet," admits the
50-year-old filmmaker, who is no
stranger to controversy.
After his first three documen-
taries were censored by Israeli tele-
vision for criticizing the govern-
ment and the military, Gitai, the
son of a Bauhaus architect-turned-
Nazi-refugee, moved to Paris for
seven years and continued making
movies that chronicled states of
exile. He has been both celebrated
and chastised for films like House,
a documentary about Arabs who
fled Israel in 1948.
After Gitai moved back to
Israel in 1993, he began a trilogy
of feature films that captured the
Israeli zeitgeist by focusing on
three cities: Tel Aviv, Haifa and
Jerusalem. Because Jerusalem is
"all about religion," he decided to
set his latest movie in one of the
6ity's most famed Orthodox
Jewish communities, Mea
Shearim, he says.
But while the story is critical of
Orthodoxy, it is also reverent,
Gitai insists. The director, after
all, worked hard to accurately
depict the beauty of Jewish ritual.
As research, he and his co-
screenwriter, Elite Abecassis, an
observant woman, spent a year
hanging out in the shuts and
schools of Mea Shearim. Gitai
studied Jewish attitudes toward
sex and childlessness on a CD-
ROM edition of the Talmud. He
filmed exterior shots of Mea
Shearim in the early morning to
avoid offending residents. A rabbi
taught Jewish ritual to the actors,
who studied Torah each evening
during production.
Earlier this year, Gitai
presided over a muddy shoot on
the Golan Heights, where, under
torrential rains, he re-created
bloody battle scenes for his next
film, an autobiographical
account of his experience during
the Yom Kippur Wat Like all his
movies, Kippur is likely to raise
eyebrows. But Gitai doesn't
mind. "Controversy is natural
when you make movies that
strike a nerve," he says. "And I
don't like conformity of opinion,
even regarding my films." ❑

Naomi Pfefferman is entertainment
editor at the Jewish Journal
of Greater Los Angeles.

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Saturday, May 13 • •
Show 7:30a .m. • •
Wayne State University
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Bonstelle Theater
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(Former home of Temple Beth El)
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Bus departs Beth El at 6:15 p.m.
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(Parking limited; please ride the bus)
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or
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Sunday, May 14 •
Brunch 11:30 a.m. • •
Lighthouse Cathedral •
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(Formerly the Woodward/Gladstone Temple) •
Bus departs Beth El at 10:45 a.m. •
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(There is no parking at the Cathedral;
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please ride the bus)
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Show 2:30p.m. •
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Wayne State University
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Bonstelle Theater
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(Former home of Temple Beth El)
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Bus departs Beth El at 1:15 p.m.
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MAY 13 & 14
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2000
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Starring Cantor Stephen Dubov •
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• • and 140 Talented TBE Troupers • • •

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1111•0111DOPIDODUDIDIDIDotaimeaDabasasaDeDismaiousseaDomaDaDaDaDaDallmomfmmaDa.

THE BEST OF BETH EL TICKET ORDER FORM

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Performance Times. Check One:
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Saturday,
May
13,
7:30 p.m.
Sunday, May 14, 2:30 p.m.
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• TICKET PRICES (for either performance) BRUNCH & BUS PACKAGE

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@ $50 =

(main floor)

@ $36 =

(main floor)

@ $25 =

(first balcony)

@ $18 =

@ Adults x $30

(upper balcony)

@ Children x $18

SUNDAY, MAY 14, 11:30 a.m.

(does not include show ticket)

Total $

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BUS TICKETS

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City:

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TBE, 7400 Telegraph Rd., Bloomfield Hills, MI 48301
Attn: Best of Beth El
Tickets must be picked up at Temple Beth El

For more information, please call: (248) 851-1100 ext. 3150

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