Cinema Sabaya
Image: Green Productions and Ella Barak
סינמה סבאיא | Orit Fokus Rotem | Israel, 2021 | Hebrew/Arabic (English subtitles) | Drama | 91m | DCP | IMDB | Contact: Memento | Festival marketing sample: JFF 2021
Description: Rona, a Tel Aviv based filmmaker, leads a video production workshop for eight Arab and Jewish women: a junket awarded by Hadera city council to some employees. The women come from very diverse backgrounds. There is a retiree and a young woman: both married conservative hijab wearers. Of the two secular Arabs, one is a human rights lawyer and the other still lives at home with her parents. The Jewish women include a divorced Russian immigrant mother of two, forced to return to live with her mother, a free spirited older woman who shares her sailing boat home with a German Shepherd, a twice married librarian and a woman whose husband is clinically depressed.
The first session starts with discord. Why is the workshop presented in Hebrew when half of us are Arab? Asks one of the participants. Because the Arabs speak Hebrew and the Jews don’t speak Arabic, explain her Arab colleagues. One of the Jewish participants admits this is her first interaction with Arabs. Why in a city full of Arab women are they invisible to her, she is asked. The human rights lawyer is challenged for her defence of terrorists. When one of the participants urges the younger orthodox Moslem wife to obtain driving lessons despite her husband’s prohibition, the retiree tells her, in Arabic, to ignore the advice. Eventually, empathy and common ground are found as the women share their problems, dreams and aspirations.
Merits: Almost all of the action takes place in a small hall: the workshop space. The only exception is when the women present brief clips they captured at home: of their partners, children and pets: Rona’s ‘homework’ assignments. Yet Rotem’s delicate touch and the outstanding performances soon eclipse the drab and claustrophobic surroundings. Despite the almost schematic diversity in their backgrounds, the characters are finely drawn. Their revelations are hesitant, often suggestive more than expressive and feel entirely authentic. Rotem’s film rewards audiences with many intensely charged and poignant moments.
Rating: Strong language.
Programming considerations: Strong appeal to feminist and liberal audiences.