SHIVA (SEVEN DAYS)
Israel, 2008, 103 minutes, Colour.
Ronit Elkabetz, Albert Iluz, Yael Abecassis, Simon Abkarian.
Directed by Ronit Elkabetz and Shlomi Elkabetz.
Shiva is a traditional Jewish mourning for the dead where the family comes to the house and sits for seven days on the floor to grieve the death of the family member.
This custom provides an opportunity for a large family to come together, be confined to a house, let the conflicts between the various members surface. This means some high drama and even melodrama at times. The dead brother is seen by different members of the family from quite different perspectives. There are financial problems, relational and betrayal problems, the older generation, the dominant matriarch, the younger generation not on the wavelength of the clashes of the older.
The film tends to be rather claustrophobic in its staying within the house, the various rooms, the larger-than-life characters who fill them. The film was co-written and co-directed by brother and sister Ronit Elkabetz and Shlomi Elkabetz. Ronit Elkabetz has a strong reputation as an international actress in 2008-9 in such films as Fanny Ardant’s Ashes and Blood, Jaffa, Andre Techine’s The Girl on the Train. She and her brother also wrote the prequel to Shiva, with the English title To Take a Wife, in 2004. They had intentions of continuing the story of To Take a Wife and Shiva to a third film.
1.An Israeli family? Universal issues?
2.The film confined to the house and the rooms? The use of the rooms and angles, movement? The kitchen, the bedroom? The people living on the floor, the camera at floor level? The musical score?
3.The emphasis on dialogue, characters?
4.The title, death and mourning, at the cemetery during the credits, the close-up of the group, the mother as central? Prayer? Weeping, lament, stylised? The house and the rituals, the bedrooms, the furniture being removed, people on the floor, covering the mirrors and pictures? Not eating meat? Seven days in the house, everybody sleeping on the floor, communal living? Remembering and mourning?
5.The dead man and his impact, his mother’s grief, his wife and her accusations against the family? The wife staying in the room? Being persuaded to come downstairs? Her sons? The issue of the factory, business success and failure, the brothers and sisters, the loans, payments, bankruptcy? His dancing all night, the stroke? His affair with Lily?
6.The mother as matriarch, the professional mourners joining her, her son, presiding over the family, listening to the arguments, her anger, slapping Meir, going with the group to the cemetery at the end?
7.The brothers, their personalities, Meir as the oldest, his age, wanting to be mayor, David and his being a singer, the jingle for the campaign? Jacques, his dealings, more ruthless? Alitar and his concern? Charlie as young and angry, defying his brothers? Issues of finance? Simona and her not talking, her anger about her husband and his death? Chaim and his responsibility, discussions with his wife, her German background, lending the money? His pondering what to do about the finances, not wanting to be dependent on the brothers? The discussions about selling the houses or not? The meetings between the brothers?
8.The wives, Therese and her relationship with Meir, doing all the cooking and cleaning, with Evelyn? Meir and his relationship with her? Lily and Jacques? Her affair?
9.Simona not talking, Vivienne and her husband, the bitterness, the divorce, his insistence on religious rituals? Her not talking? Ben Lulu and his attraction towards Vivienne? The discussions about life, their arguments and resentments? Simona and her outburst, widow, the money, the family not visiting her, her anger at them all? The later reconciliation with Vivienne? Vivienne and her seeming haughtiness, the divorce, Ben Lulu?
10.Therese and Evelyn and their gossip in the kitchen, supplying the audience with information? Evelyn and her attraction to Ben Lulu, changing her clothes, makeup, people’s reactions? Ben Lulu not noticing her?
11.Ben Lulu, the factory, his management, helping the family, the attraction to Vivienne, kissing her?
12.Eliyau and his presence, the divorce, his religious insistence, pleading with Vivienne?
13.A film of family dynamics, quarrels, bitterness, possibilities for reconciliation or not?
14.The film as the second in a trilogy – and anticipating the consequences of the death and the mourning?
15.The background of the Gulf War, Israel and the attitude to Saddam Hussein, the bombing raids, the sirens, the gas masks even at the cemetery? The mother not wearing hers? The raid and the reactions during the days of mourning?
