Kadosh


Kadosh is a 1999 film by Israeli director Amos Gitai. It was entered into the 1999 Cannes Film Festival.

Plot

Kadosh is a bleak drama on the status of women in Haredi society. In the opening scene, Meir, a young Talmudic scholar, thanks God in his morning prayers for not being born a woman. At first, the marriage of Meir and his wife, Rivka, appears tender and idyllic, but as the movie progresses, it becomes clear that Meir is concerned with the fact that he is childless after ten years of marriage. Meir's father, the Rabbi of their small community in Jerusalem, tells Meir he is required to divorce Rivka because a woman's only function is to have children. Eventually Meir complies, which destroys Rivka emotionally and she moves away so that Meir can marry a coosin.
Rivka's younger sister, Malka, marries Yosef in a match forced upon her by her parents, even though she loves Yaakov, a rock singer, who has abandoned the religious community. When Yosef is sexually cold to her, she leaves for a night with Yaakov; when she returns, Yosef calls her a slut and beats her with a belt. She runs out of their apartment.
Meir, having divorced Rivka and remarried, shows up at Rivka's apartment on the Purim holiday, and wants to be with her. She retreats initially. We do not see what happens, but when Malka runs to Rivka's apartment after Yosef beats her, Rivka babbles about being pregnant.
In the final scene, which could be a dream or allegory, Rivka comes to Meir who is sleeping, lies down with him and drapes herself all over him, but he does not wake up. Eventually she falls asleep on top of him. He wakes up and cannot rouse her. The movie ends with him shaking Rivka and trying to wake her, as she has apparently dies of a broken heart.
One review of the movie is found in the New York Times.

Cast