MOVIE REVIEW
“GETT: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem”
Grade: B
Starring Ronit Elkabetz, Menasheh Noy and Simon Abkarian. Directed by Shlomi Elkabetz and Ronit Elkabetz. In Hebrew, Arabic, French with English subtitles.
Unrated. Check listings for theaters. 1 hour, 56 minutes.
Bottom line: A moving and infuriating story
By Betsy Sharkey
Los Angeles Times
Disturbing and shocking, “Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem” is a fiction about an unimaginable fact of life in present-day Israel. The divorce-centered drama is so provocative it’s become a lightning rod for debate inside the country. Even watching from a distance is unnerving.
For all intents and purposes, Viviane (Ronit Elkabetz), a wife and mother, is chattel. No rights to speak of, no voice or choice in her desire to end her long-dead marriage. Her only hope rests in the hands of rigid rabbis and a resistant husband, Elisha (Simon Abkarian), neither inclined to grant her request.
The tense courtroom drama stands as a film on its own, but it is also the final part of a trilogy written and directed by the Elkabetz siblings, Ronit and her brother Shlomi. In 2004’s “To Take a Wife,” Viviane was a young mother, but her marriage to Elisha already was stressed. In the next film, 2008’s “7 Days,” we watched the family sit shiva as more conflict emerged.
“Gett” is the most pointed and most moving as it follows Viviane as she brings her case before the court. Years pass, with Elisha and the various rabbis who sit in judgment refusing her.
Though divorce is never easy, never without cost, watching Viviane quietly resist the patriarchal system that keeps her tied to her husband against her will is both empowering and depressing.
Empowering because the filmmaking actress imbues her with such determination, even when it would seem that she is worn to the breaking point by the process. Depressing that this system exists.
In a meticulous fashion, the story takes apart the current process piece by piece. The attorneys’ arguments lay out the legal and religious question. There is a parade of witnesses _ family, friends, neighbors, members of their synagogue. Title cards announce how many months, then years have passed since the last hearing.
Surprisingly, there are light moments scattered throughout, usually in the testimony of some outspoken witness. But the dark reality of Viviane’s plight, and the plight of all women seeking a divorce in the country, is impossible to forget.
The tragedy here is not a single story but that a process so inequitable and so inane continues in a place that is considered to be enlightened. “Gett,” in moving and infuriating ways, exposes a very bleak corner of that world.
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