Kadosh

Kadosh (Hebrew: קדוש‎) (lit. Sacred) is a 1999 film by Israeli director Amos Gitai. It was entered into the 1999 Cannes Film Festival.[1]

Kadosh
Directed byAmos Gitai
Produced byAmos Gitai
Michel Propper
Written byEliette Abecassis
Amos Gitai
StarringYaël Abecassis
Yoram Hattab
Meital Barda
Uri Klauzner
Yussuf Abu-Warda
Music byPhilippe Eidel
Louis Sclavis
CinematographyRenato Berta
Edited byMonica Coleman
Kobi Netanel
Distributed byOcean Film
Release date
June 10, 1999
Running time
116 minutes
CountryFrance
Israel
LanguageHebrew

Plot

Kadosh is a bleak drama on the status of women in Haredi society. In the opening scene, Meir (Yoram Hattab), a young Talmudic scholar, thanks God in his morning prayers for not being born a woman. At first, the marriage of Meir and his wife, Rivka (Yael Abecassis), appears tender and idyllic, but as the movie progresses, it becomes clear that Meir is concerned with the fact that he is childless after ten years of marriage. Meir's father, the Rabbi of their small community in Jerusalem, tells Meir he is required to divorce Rivka because a woman's only function is to have children. Eventually Meir complies, which destroys Rivka emotionally and she moves away so that Meir can marry a coosin.

Rivka's younger sister, Malka, marries Yosef in a match forced upon her by her parents, even though she loves Yaakov, a rock singer, who has abandoned the religious community. When Yosef is sexually cold to her, she leaves for a night with Yaakov; when she returns, Yosef calls her a slut and beats her with a belt. She runs out of their apartment.

Meir, having divorced Rivka and remarried, shows up at Rivka's apartment on the Purim holiday (when men traditionally get drunk), and wants to be with her (a Haredi man would normally never be alone with a woman who is not his wife). She retreats initially. We do not see what happens, but when Malka runs to Rivka's apartment after Yosef beats her, Rivka babbles about being pregnant.

In the final scene, which could be a dream or allegory, Rivka comes to Meir who is sleeping, lies down with him and drapes herself all over him, but he does not wake up (nor is his new wife present, suggesting this is not actually the storyline). Eventually she falls asleep on top of him. He wakes up and cannot rouse her. The movie ends with him shaking Rivka and trying to wake her, as she has apparently dies of a broken heart.

One review of the movie is found in the New York Times.[2]

Cast
  • Yaël Abecassis - Rivka
  • Yoram Hattab - Meïr
  • Meital Barda - Malka
  • Uri Klauzner - Yossef (as Uri Ran-Klausner)
  • Yussuf Abu-Warda - Rav Shimon
  • Leah Koenig - Elisheva (as Lea Koenig)
  • Sami Huri - Yaakov
  • Rivka Michaeli - Gynaecologist
  • Samuel Calderon - Uncle Shmouel
  • Noa Dori - Noa
  • Shireen Kadivar - Lexa
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See also

References
  1. "Festival de Cannes: Kadosh". festival-cannes.com. Retrieved 2009-10-06.
  2. Holden, Stephen (2000-02-16). "New York Times review". Movies.nytimes.com. Retrieved 2011-08-02.


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