Rivka and Meir live in an insular Orthodox Jewish community in Israel. They've been married for ten years and have yet to have any children, the assumption being that Rivka is barren. The religious elders frown on this lack of production, their belief being that the most important role of a woman is to provide her husband with a son.
Pressure is placed on Meir to divorce Rivka and find another bride who may better perform her wifely duty. Though Meir is devout, his love for Rivka leads him to question the doctrine which holds that a husband must abandon his wife if she hasn't produced offspring after ten years.

In the film's subplot, Rivka's sister Malka is set to marry Yossef, a friend of Meir's in the Orthodox community. Malka is more resistant to the enterprise than Rivka was, and doubts she'll be happy being conscripted into such a rigid arrangement. Malka instead loves a local singer with more secular attitudes about life.

Though it's clear Gitai's attitude about the religious fundamentalism that is behind all the strife in the film is a disapproving one, he depicts no one as a one-dimensional villain and takes a nuanced and ultimately understanding view of the proceedings. All of the performances carry an understated power, and the total effect of the film is quietly devastating.

Donald Brown

 

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Distribution	Kino Region 0 - NTSC