Gett: Der Prozess der Viviane Amsalem (2014)

Gett: Der Prozess der Viviane Amsalem: Directed by Ronit Elkabetz, Shlomi Elkabetz. With Ronit Elkabetz, Simon Abkarian, Gabi Amrani, Dalia Beger. After a lukewarm marriage of over twenty years, a woman appeals to her husband’s compassion to obtain the desirable divorce document in front of a court, which proves to be more challenging than she would expect.

“The Israeli system of divorce is out of whack, a lot of Israeli women are u0026quot;anchoredu0026quot; (as the Hebrew language puts it) in marriages they donu0026#39;t want, and a lot of people are angry, so as a male Israeli Iu0026#39;m pleased that this divorce drama doesnu0026#39;t turn the husband into a sneering villain to symbolize the balefulness of the system. Instead the husband is a woebegone sort of Bartleby who is emotionally unable to say u0026quot;yesu0026quot; to a divorce and he seems very alone. A parade of witnesses are played flamboyantly by top Israeli character actors, and the husbandu0026#39;s isolation is emphasized by the fact that the actor playing him is a foreigner little known in Israel. (In fact, and unrealistically, the dialogue tends to lapse into French and after an initial protest the judges tend to tolerate the departure.) So while the movie certainly presents the woman as the aggrieved party– she was married too young, and to a man whose expectations of religious observance she couldnu0026#39;t bring herself to meet– the balance is not against an evil or deeply vindictive husband but against a bruised and defensive one, and it works well.”