Divorce Denied
מסורבות | David Ofek/Mia Webb | Israel, 2019 | Hebrew (English subtitles) | Documentary | 59m | DCP | IMDB | Distributor/Sales: Trabelsi Productions | Festival marketing sample: Jüdisches Filmfestival Berlin Brandenburg 2020 | Trailer | DocuShuk
Description: In Israel, marriage and divorce are the province of the religious courts. According to Jewish law, only a husband can grant a divorce to his wife. Even in cases where couples have been separated for several years, religious courts can only pressure the husband but cannot compel him to do so. Batya Kahana Dror is an orthodox woman who advocates for women denied a divorce. We follow her as she navigates the cases of three clients, Sarah, Noa and Oshrat.
Merits: Recalling Kim Longinotto and Ziba Mir-Hosseini’s excellent Divorce Iranian Style, Ofek and Webb’s intimate fly on the wall documentary movingly relates the protagonists’ multi-year struggle to terminate their marriages. In one of the cases, the husband suffered a stroke and the rabbinical judges require that he demonstrate his capacity to consent to the divorce. In the other two cases the husbands are abroad, oblivious to and out of reach of the courts’ sanctions. Kahana Dror comes across as hugely sympathetic and resourceful in her attempts to help her clients in the face of an unfair and at times perhaps even corrupt system.
Rating: Reference to abuse of minors.