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Film Search
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Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem
Drama
If the goal of Ronit and Shlomi Elkabetz was to convey the sheer grueling ordeal faced by their protagonist, they succeeded in a way that’s both powerful and challenging to maintain dramatically. They follow the multi-year court proceedings of Israeli woman Viviane Amsalem (Ronit Elkabetz) as she attempts to secure a gett—a legal divorce under Jewish law—from her husband Elisha (Simon Akbarian). But that law requires that a husband must consent to any divorce—and Elisha steadfastly refuses to do so. The story plows through dozens of individual hearings and procedural hurdles demanded by the rabbis serving as judges, as the entire film plays out strictly within the claustrophobic confines of the courthouse. That approach results in a numbing, frustrating sameness to many of the scenes, but also many powerful confrontations in which the characters’ motivations are teased out patiently. What could have been little more than a wag of the finger at Israel’s male-centered legal process instead becomes a more complex look at both the pain of women living as second-class citizens, and the possessive entitlement of those who assume that’s the way things should be.
Official Site: www.musicboxfilms.com/gett--the-trial-of-viviane-amsalem-movies-111.php
Director: Ronit Elkabetz and Shlomi Elkabetz
Producer: Efrat Bigger, Sandrine Brauer, Rémi Burah, Denis Carot, Michael Eckelt, Shlomi Elkabetz and Marie Masmonteil
Cast: Ronit Elkabetz, Menashe Noy, Simon Abkarian, Gabi Amrani, Dalia Beger, Shmil Ben-Ari, Abraham Celektar and Rami Danon
Director: Ronit Elkabetz and Shlomi Elkabetz
Producer: Efrat Bigger, Sandrine Brauer, Rémi Burah, Denis Carot, Michael Eckelt, Shlomi Elkabetz and Marie Masmonteil
Cast: Ronit Elkabetz, Menashe Noy, Simon Abkarian, Gabi Amrani, Dalia Beger, Shmil Ben-Ari, Abraham Celektar and Rami Danon
