Ramleh

A sobering documentary following the daily lives of a Palestinian Muslim woman and three Jewish women in Ramleh--a town in the heartland of Israel roughly 20 minutes by car from Tel Aviv--filmmaker Michal Aviad's Ramleh (produced between the Israeli general elections of 1999 and 2001) illuminates the personal and cultural crossroads in these women's lives as each of their stories unfolds against the backdrop of Israel's turbulent political climate. Subtly weaving her own experience into the film through voice-over narration, Aviad inconspicuously captures the stresses of her subjects' daily lives--the strife-ridden city streets, the suspicion on an employer's face during a job interview, and the palpable fear the moment election results are announced. The women interviewed include Sima, a member of the ultra-orthodox “Shas” party, who only agreed to participate after several discussions with her rabbi and with the permission of her husband; and Svetlana, also Jewish, a single mother of two representing Ramleh's recent immigrants from the former Soviet Union. Although Aviad had difficulty finding any Palestinian Muslim women willing to be filmed (in Ramleh's dangerous atmosphere, six Muslim women would die at the hands of male relatives over the course of filming), she eventually stumbled upon Gehad, a Palestinian law student and teacher, whose moderate views clash with her culture's strict traditions. Brilliantly underscoring the complexity of the current cultural, political, and religious impasse in Israel through a simple study of women who have much in common but nonetheless remain worlds apart, this sensitive portrait is highly recommended. Aud: C. P. (A. Cantú)