Courtesy of Music Box Films
Divorce played out as a courtroom drama may be an old idea in Hollywood, but a new Israeli film lifts the veil on divorce proceedings in Orthodox Judaism. Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem unfolds entirely within a rabbinical courtroom where a divorce filed by the wife drags on in Bleak House fashion. Her husband refuses to grant the divorce, and sometimes refuses to cooperate. At one point the rabbis, exercising their power within Israel’s legal system, jail him for contempt.
It’s a patriarchal system with the odds stacked in favor of the husband, and yet it’s not a kangaroo court. The suspense of Gett comes from never knowing exactly where the process is leading, what the next witness will say or how the court will react. Directors Ronit and Shlomi Elkabetz juggle several themes successfully, including religious hypocrisy and the bitterness that spurts from a marriage that has died yet lives on. It’s a knowing satire with understanding for all parties, but our sympathy is clearly with the long suffering wife who just wants out.
Opens March 27 at the Downer Theatre.
Check out the trailer:
