Kadosh
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Movie Reviews of Kadosh
Movie Review: Sex, religion and politics
Summary: 4 Stars
In a beautifully constructed but ultimately depressing essay on the endless pain and suffering caused by blind allegiance to doctrine and tradition, Israeli director Amos Gitai turns a relentlessly critical eye on a stiflingly ultra-orthodox segment of the Jewish population in modern-day Jerusalem. No, Gitai holds no punches.Two sisters, Rivka (Yael Abecassis) and Malka (Meital Barda) are trapped in this male-dominated society. Rivka has not been able to bear children for her husband Meir (Yoram Hattab) and, according to a direct quote from the Talmud itself, a barren woman is no better than a dead woman. Malka, meanwhile, can not marry the man she loves but must marry the ultra-orthodox Yossef (Uri Ran Klausner) who believes that the only role women play in today's world is that of producing more Jewish men.
In a brilliant stroke, director Gitai explores the ruinous ramifications of such a belief system by focusing almost solely on the impact it causes to the sexual lives of these two young subjugated women -- incredibly sweet and beautiful love scenes are juxtaposed with one of the most repugnant and mechanical sex scenes in recent memory, which drives home the sad point that the only purpose of marriage is to allow cold, painful intercourse which itself is necessary only for the propagation of the faction.
Movie Review: Tonight I watch this film for the 3rd time this week.
Summary: 4 Stars
I recently saw this film at a local Jewish film festival and was roundly disabused of the notion that there is little mind bending - feature length cinema coming from Isreal today. This is one of the most gorgeously composed films I have seen for years and I am truely stunned. There is not much to tell about the plot. There are seven characters .... mostly trying to reconcile their love for their families and their love for the traditions of Chasidism as they understand them in the very insular world of Mea Shearim. Regardless of what the movie is about .... and even if you feel that Gitai is being a little heavy handed in his presentation of the Ultra-Orthodox, rarely outside of Bergman will you find narrative scenes so exquisitly developed with such a minimum of camera movement or unnecessary diaglogue. The power of a single shot developed by the actors/actresses themselves is treated as a true dramatic celebration by anyone who can either understand Hebrew or is not too terribly disconcerted by white subtitles against a predominantly white background and other careless DVD transfer oversights .... hence the loss of one star.Movie Review: The reviews should be about the movie...
Summary: 4 Stars
I read the previous comments and was surprised that all of them boiled down to discussion about Jewish orthodox way of life. The movie tells a story of two orthodox couples in Israel through the eyes of the director of the movie. I do not think and also hope that the director did not pretend to know the "whole truth nothing but the truth" and it was his attempt to depict what he views as an orthodox way of life. I am not an orthodox Jew but I saw Jews who would be like main personages of the movie, I also saw Jews orthodox Jews who would not be like that.Any stereotyping is dangerous, multiplied by ignorance it could be deadly, so let's focus on cinematography and not on the director's vision of what ultra-orthodoxy is about. I am sure 99.9% of the movie viewers have no clue what would be a major difference between the people portrayed in the movie and other orthodox Jews living next door..
The movie is anti-religious and anti-orthodox, but is done well and actors are playing reasonably well, so I gave it 4 out of 5...
Movie Review: Fascinating
Summary: 4 Stars
Fascinating and engaging portray of the world of the Ultra Orthodox Jewish Community. Beautifully acted and directed. A must see for anybody ineterested in the dinamics of the Israeli society as well.Movie Review: What is "sacred"?
Summary: 3 Stars
There are some thoughtful and well-written reviews both at Amazon and the IMDb and elsewhere in which it is claimed that the type of Jewish Orthodoxy presented here is not accurate. There are quibbles about the unnatural way that Meir puts on his garments. There is criticism of the selection of prayers recited, especially Meir giving thanks that he was not born a woman. Moreover, there is the assertion that orthodox Judaism does NOT require that a man repudiate his wife after ten years of marriage even though she may be barren. Furthermore, the character of Yossef is said not to be typical of orthodox Jewish men since he takes his wife sexually without love or tenderness, that he hits her when angry, and goes about the streets of Israel with a loudspeaker hawking his religious point of view.
First, it is a shame (if true) that the way Meir dressed and recited his morning prayers was inaccurate, because such details can easily be made accurate with some research. Certainly director Amos Gitai had access to many orthodox people who could have helped him. Putting that aside, the artistic point of the opening scene was to immerse the viewer into a world based on religious beliefs and practices that are strikingly different from the secular world of today. He also wanted to introduce his theme, which is that women in Orthodox Judaism, as in the other two great religions of the Middle East, in their fundamentalist interpretations--this bears repeating: in their fundamentalist interpretations--are not on an equal level with men. Certainly in a realistic sense, Meir, since he dearly loves his wife, would have chosen something else to recite. However, I think we can give Gitai some artistic license here. The fact that such a prayer exits in the Jewish canon is not to be denied.
Second, the film does NOT claim that Orthodox Judaism requires that a man repudiate his wife after ten years of childless marriage. Instead it makes the very strong point that, from the point of view of Orthodox Judaism, such a woman is not fulfilling her role in society, and that there will be people outside the marriage who will try to persuade him to abandon her. Gitai's screenplay contains several textual pronouncements to that effect. The fact that Meir is torn between his love for his wife and his love for his religion is really the point. How he resolves that dilemma is an individual choice, and that is what the film shows.
As for the unflattering character of Yossef, whom Rivka's sister Malka is persuaded to marry (not forced, mind you, but persuaded) he is a foil and a counterpoint for the loving and deeply religious Meir. The fact that he is not a poster boy for Orthodox Judaism is not a valid criticism of the film, since all religions have their black sheep.
I think a fairer criticism of the film can be made by addressing the question of, was it entertaining and/or a work of art?
Here I have mixed feelings. Certainly the acting was excellent, and the theme a worthy one. Gitai's desire to show the underlying similarities among the conservative expressions of all three Abrahamic religions, through their shared patriarchal attitudes toward women and their estrangement from the postmodern world, was very well taken and appropriate. Where I think Gitai failed as film maker is in his inability to be completely fair to the orthodox way of life--his failure to show the joys as well as the sorrows of its everyday life which would help outsiders to understand why people adhere to such a way of life.
I also think that the film could have been better edited. In the documentary about how the film was made we see scenes that were cut that I think should have been retained, especially the scene in which the omelette was made and the scene in which the mother critiques the life choices her three daughters have made. Instead we have some scenes that ran too long. It is a fine technique that Gitai sometimes employs of letting the silence speak for the characters, of holding the camera on the scene to allow the audience to reflect and then to reflect again. However, I think this can be overdone and was overdone, and that judicious cutting of some of the scenes would have strengthened the movie.
Bottom line: a slow polemic of a movie that nonetheless is worth seeing because of the importance and timeliness of its theme, the originality of some of the techniques, and the fine acting, especially by Yael Abecassis who played Rivka and Meital Barda who played Malka.
One more point: yellow subtitles, please!