marsanobill Review of The Women's Balcony

The Women's Balcony (2016)

It's Really About Fundamentalist Tyrants--of EVERY Kind

[8/10 · 30 May 2017]

The Women's Balcony is a comedy-drama set in Jerusalem about orthodox Jews but--mirabile dictu!—they're happy Jews, full of life and love and joy. Away dull care! Begone Rama Burshstein! But not for long. When the women's balcony of their synagogue collapses, the congregation's elderly and beloved rabbi is incapacitated, leaving them spiritually rudderless and only too glad to find a temporary substitute. This rabbi is young and handsome, with a commanding presence and more than his share of arrogance; soon it is clear that he doesn't think his adoptive congregants are Jewish enough. No, he begins persuading and eventually bullying the men into adopting ever more restrictive ways; his sophistry soon has them cowed and he expects to also cow the women, whom he relegates to voiceless submission. Some of the women do bend a little under his tyranny, but eventually he goes too far. The film is not about the clash of modern and traditional values (actually, it's more like 19th century vs. medieval values), and it's not at all solely about Jews. This is a tale about the creeping stranglehold of fundamentalist tyranny. Somehow the scriptwriter, Shlomit Nehama, has managed to leaven it with wry and loving humor. Two revealing scenes involve and electric samovar early on and a bowl of fruit salad much later. The finale is a delight.