FILL THE AVOID

Israel, 2012, 90 minutes, Colour.
Hadas Yaron, Yiftach Klein, Irit Sheleg.
Directed by Rama Bushtein.

This film is different from the usual stories from Israel. While other films treat the Orthodox Jews and their stories, this film was written and directed by a woman who converted to the Orthodox and has lived within its strict rules and traditions. She is telling the story of a young woman from inside the community.

The film, photographed in authentic locations in Tel Aviv, brings the life and lifestyle of the Orthodox to the screen quite vividly. This is very patriarchal society. Women are subject to the decisions of the men. And this is particularly the case with arranged marriages, the theme of this film.

Shira is a young woman with some energy, studying the traditions, well-informed, but also faced with the prospect of women in the community, her marriage. The film opens with a slightly bizarre episode in a supermarket where a marriage broker contacts the young girl and her mother by phone to indicate that a prospective husband is in part of the supermarket and that they should approach him.

However, a severe complication arises when the young woman’s older sister dies in childbirth. Her husband is expected to marry again, especially for the child, and for a moment he intends to go to Belgium for a new wife. Shira is attracted to him but the thought of her marrying her sister’s husband with the sexual implications somewhat repels her.

Her father is a rabbi and on feasts holds court with people coming to him for advice and, especially, men coming for financial assistance. He runs a strict household and has views on the marriage of his younger daughter. The strong-minded mother is busy running the household but also concerned about her daughter.

There is also a rabbi of higher rank, consulted by many people, who gives advice to the young woman. In discussions with the widower, Shira finds more sympathy for him, especially as he breaks down, with tears for his situation, his dead wife and for his child.

Many audiences watching this film will feel somewhat alienated from the beliefs and the traditions of the people, the marriage arrangements, the situation of women. However, the writer-director presents the situation, takes it for granted, as, finally, does Shira.

A film insightful for its Orthodox audience, a film to be observed by those outside the community and by those who sympathy is not immediately for the community.

Israel’s Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language film for 2012.


1. The claim from the film, nominated for Oscars?

2. A female director and female perspective? An orthodox director and her perspective on life and her own culture?
3. Audience attitudes towards the orthodox? In Tel Aviv? Within Israel? Outside Israel? Foreign audiences seeing the community and its customs and traditions as remote and strange?

4. Tel Aviv, the area, the homes, streets, the meetings of the Rabbis, the offices, synagogues?

5. The separation between men and women? Women’s lives? Subordinate to men, arranged marriages for the men, the wives submissive? The traditions, the clothes, the married women and their covering their area? The rituals? The feast of Purim? The place of the men, the Rabbis, leadership? The clothes, hats, the head? The meetings, the prayers, the singing? The women watching from outside the room? The acceptance of these traditions?

6. The musical score, the music for the Psalm, the chant?

7. The opening, the two women, mother and daughter, the phone to the broker, the supermarket, going to the dairy area, watching the young man? Shira and her hopes? Seeing the man, only glimpses, the later meeting, the orange juice, his lack of personality?

8. Shira at 18, accepting the way of life, with her mother, with her aunt, with the marriage broker? Her sister and her pregnancy? Frieda and her friendship? Life and expectations, to be married?

9. The sympathetic portrait of the aunt, her having no arms, never married, the possibility with the disabled man, her not liking him, covering her hair like a married woman so that there were not intrusive questions? Her helping her sister? Care for Shira?

10. The strong personality of her mother, her father and his clients, the feast of Purim and his listening to the petitions, fostering marriage and children, handing out the cash, the man with the wife with mental problems, his rejecting the money? Money as the solution?

11. The old rabbi, at the table, the men around him, listening, giving advice, the woman intruding and asking for advice about the oven?

12. The sister, her pregnancy, giving birth, her death? Her husband and the effect on him? Grief? The birth of the child?

13. Yochay, the need to marry again, the need for looking after his child, the arranged marriage in Belgium, the possibility of his going? The plan falling through, Shira to be his next wife? Talking with her, her repugnance, the reasons, missing the initial joy of marriage, sexual relationship with her sister’s husband? Yochay, advice, his drinking, weeping, the effect on Shira?

14. Frieda, the suggestion that Yochay marry her, his rejection, are being hurt? The joy of the engagement with the broker, the marriage?

15. Shira agreeing, if Yochay agreeing, the parents and the visiting of the rabbi, Shira and the note? The build-up to the engagement, the wedding, Shira and her weeping, her joy? Her mother taking her down, the ceremony? Yochay and his joy?

16. The aftermath, Yochay and Shira in the room – and the moment of the ending, Shira and the anticipation of the marriage? The audience and its
wondering what would happen?

17. An insight into an exclusive community, looking in on itself, marriage within the community, suspicions of the outside world and its modernism? And empathetic view of this community?