Sacred

Kadosh (Sacred) is part of Amos Gitai's trilogy about tradition and modernity in urban Israel, and chronicles the lives of Rivka and Malka, two sisters living in Jerusalem's ultra orthodox Mea Sharim district. Rivka is happily married to Meir, but because they have not been able to have children, their rabbi forces Meir to take a second wife. Malka on her part is forced to marry the rabbi's assistant Haya, but she is in love with a man who has chosen to live outside the community. Whereas Rivka desperately wants to be with her husband and adapt to an orthodox life, Malka choses to rebel against the male authority.

Despite its spefific milieu, this riveting and heart-wrenching film conveys Gitais ambition to challenge fundamentalism and oppression within all religions.

Amos Gitaï (b. 1950) is one of Israel's foremost filmmakers. He started his career during his military service on the Yom Kippur war in 1973, and his recordings there was later turned into a documentary. Gutaï directed his first documentary feature House in 1979, and after several other films he lived in Paris between 1983 and 1993 where he directed his first fiction film Ester. Gitaï's films have been shown and awarded at film festivals all over the world.