Film examines feminism and sexuality against a backdrop of Jewish mysticism
Reviewed by MICHAEL FOX
Veteran Israeli director Avi Nesher is an uncommonly ambitious and fearless filmmaker. His latest film, The Secrets, calmly broaches as many taboos as it can. A gripping and occasionally melodramatic argument for the emancipation of religious women, it draws equally on Yentl and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Indeed, it could have been called Chava Potter and the Yeshiva of Doom, except for the lawyers’ fees that would have been generated.
The Secrets is receiving a scattershot U.S. release, with a mix of festival dates in some markets and theatrical runs in bigger cities. It screens Saturday, March 14 at the Hopkins Mann Theater, as part of the Sabes Foundation Minneapolis Jewish Film Festival.
Michelle (Michal Shtamler, left) and Naomi (Ania Bukstein) meet and begin a complex friendship at an all-female Jewish seminary in Safed, the fabled center of medieval Kabbala, in Secrets, a film by Avi Nesher. (Photo: Eyal Landesman)
Naomi is a Talmud prodigy with the promise to be a great scholar and rabbi like her father. Instead, she’s lined up to marry his prize pupil and become a perfect Orthodox wife. She’s mighty strong-willed, however, and her father agrees to let her go to an all-girls yeshiva in Safed.
Naomi’s roommates range from a chubby sidekick to a new (yet still goth) frummie, with a wild card named Michelle thrown in for exotic, dramatic spice. Michelle has just returned from living in France for several years, and her bilingualism comes in handy when she and Naomi are assigned to bring food to a terminally ill French woman, Anouk (Fanny Ardant).
Anouk gradually discloses her secret anguish, inspiring Naomi and Michelle to devise a program of healing Kabbalistic rituals so she can make peace with God before she dies. Needless to say, the girls risk extreme punishment for the sins of thinking for themselves and practicing high-level Judaism, without having the requisite male genitalia.
The ancient city of Safed (at least in the movies) is a mysterious catalyst that brings every character’s true nature and inner desires to the fore. The story goes places you likely won’t expect — and may not appreciate — and, unfortunately for Naomi, what happens in Safed does not stay in Safed.
The Secrets takes us into a world we rarely glimpse, and imbues its inhabitants with passion, humor and a fierce spirit. It also reflects Israeli cinema’s knack, exemplified by such films as Eytan Fox’s The Bubble, for translating specifically Israeli concerns into entertaining and accessible works that easily transcend borders.
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Film festival to wrap up March 15
AJW Staff Report
The final weekend of the Sabes Foundation Minneapolis Jewish Film Festival will take place as follows:
•Â A Trip to Prague will be screened 8:30 p.m. Saturday, March 14 at the Hopkins Mann Theater, 1118 Mainstreet. The animated short film is described as a “funny, poignant story with a nice Jewish gay-boy ending.” It was the juried winner for Best Boys Short at the 2007 Seattle Lesbian and Gay Film Festival.
• The short film Berated Woman will follow A Trip to Prague. It is the story of an Orthodox Jewish woman who finds herself strangely attracted to the Aryan Supermom bent on converting her to Christianity.
• Following both short films, The Secrets (Hasodot) will be screened (see review above). Professor Miri Talmon-Bohm, a scholar of Israeli culture, cinema, media and literature, will introduce the film.
•Â Dancing Alfonso will be screened 1 p.m. Sunday, March 15 at the Sabes JCC, 4330 Cedar Lake Rd. S., St. Louis Park. Barak Heymann’s film follows a Tel Aviv senior citizen who is the lead dancer in a flamenco class with an average age of 75.
•Â Noodle will close out the festival 5 p.m. Sunday, March 15 at the Walker Art Center, 1750 Hennepin Ave., Minneapolis. Winner of the prestigious Special Grand Jury Prize at the Montreal World Film Festival, the film is a comic-drama about a young Israeli woman and a Chinese boy whose lives converge in the most surprising manner.
Talmon-Bohm will present “From Double Tragedy to Double Happiness: Noodle and the Story of Tel Aviv in Film.” A reception will follow the film.
The American Jewish World is a media sponsor of the festival. For a complete festival schedule and ticket information, visit: www.mplsjff.org.
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