April 20–27, 2000

movie shorts

Kadosh

Shot in long takes with little camera movement, Kadosh (Hebrew for "Sacred") takes stasis as its subject, or rather the implacability of millennia-old traditions. Set among Orthodox Jews in the heart of Jerusalem, Amos Gitaï’s feature focuses particularly on the trials and tribulations of two women: Rivka (Yaël Abecassis), whose loving marriage is imperiled by she and her husband’s continuing failure to conceive, and Malka (Meital Barda), who is forced into a marriage despite the fact that she is in love with another man. Unlike the oafish A Price Above Rubies, Kadosh ably balances an appreciation of faith with the recognition of its strictures; that is, it criticizes Orthodox Judaism’s patriarchal misogyny without taking on a general anti-religious tone. (That last in particular is something American movies can never get right.) Sometimes funny and occasionally brutal, Kadosh is filmed with a master’s restraint — though that restraint makes the eventual provocation to drama seem a bit forced. It’s all too rare to see a film this willing to let viewers make up their own mind, and so forceful about finding its own rhythms.

—Sam Adams