Gett

Under traditional Jewish law, a couple can only be divorced if the husband presents the wife with a religious bill of divorce known as a “gett.” This tradition and the language and ritual surrounding it traces back to Biblical times, and it is not my intent to delve into a lengthy discussion of the pros and cons of following such traditions here. However, what is relevant is that with respect to marriage, divorce, and a variety of personal matters, the ancient biblical laws are what define the process in the modern State of Israel, where not all Jewish citizens practice the full gamut of traditional Judaism but have only that approach to dealing with religious matters. A wife who does not receive a gett from her husband becomes an “agunah” — a chained or anchored woman, not permitted to marry anyone else.

“Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem” is the story of a couple who have remained in a largely loveless marriage for many years. Viviane, a secular woman, and Elisha, a pious and traditional man, have raised several children. Viviane wants Elisha to grant her a Gett but Elisha adamantly refuses to do so. Early in the film, it is not entirely clear why Elisha is so intransigent on this issue. Although there have been reports of men who have used this as a weapon to extort money from women’s families, this was not the case here, and Elisha’s motives become clear only much later in the film. Meanwhile, year after year at every opportunity she pleads her case before the religious court in an attempt to have Elisha forced to grant her the Gett, but year after year she fails to succeed.

Viviane and Elisha do rather little of the talking. Most of the dialogue is between their representatives and the panel of judges, the “Bet Din” responsible for hearing and adjudicating this case. “Gett” unfolds as a debate about love, marriage and human rights that turns on personal stories and philosophical asides, arguments and counterarguments. As one witness after another testifies about Viviane and Elisha’s marriage, her virtue, his rectitude, it becomes clear that divorce here isn’t only a personal choice, but a matter for God and a people.

This movie represents the third effort featuring Viviane written by Ms. Elkabetz with her brother Shlomi Elkabetz. We have not seen the earlier ones, “To Take a Wife,” and “Shiva,” but I think we will try to do so.

For me, this was something of an experiment. I had mentioned long ago that one of the things we love about living in New York, particularly so close to Manhattan, is the wide selection of alternative and independent film. Because the films are from around the world, they are often in foreign languages with subtitles. For much of the last three years, trying to get through even a small part of such a film was simply a futile endeavor. While it is still a struggle for sure, we thought this might work a bit better because we read a lot about the storyline before seeing it and because from the trailer it appeared to be a slow enough moving film that I might have a chance to keep up. Fortunately that turned out to be true, and only during a couple of very heated sections did I feel entirely lost, although even then the gist was clear.

This is by no means a fun afternoon. But it was an impressive and powerful film, and particularly those readers who give thought to such things would find it quite thought provoking.

I was very happy to have a chance to get out of the house, although, realizing we needed to end our day with something a bit more fun, we had dinner out at our favorite little Italian restaurant. Sweet potato ravioli with a delicious creamy tomato sauce can cure pretty much anything!

Have a nice week,

Love,

Rebecca