The Women's Balcony

This good-hearted but also provocative Israeli comedy-drama centers on women drawn into a battle against modern religious fundamentalism. Set in an older Orthodox Jewish community in Jerusalem, the film begins with a celebration as Etti (Evelin Hagoel) and Zion (Igal Naor)—along with the rest of their close-knit congregation—parade through the streets to the synagogue for the bar mitzvah of their grandson. During the service, the synagogue's sex-segregated balcony for female worshippers suddenly collapses and the wife of elderly Rabbi Menache (Abraham Celektar) is hospitalized in a coma, which leaves him confused and depressed. When the Mizrahi congregation doesn't have the 10 men needed for a minyan, Rabbi David (Avraham Aviv Alush) appears with his seminary students. Soon, fanatically zealous David is not only supervising the synagogue reconstruction but also reprimanding the women for their immodesty, urging them to cover their hair, and insinuating that the accident happened because of their sins. When the women realize that there's no place for them in the newly rebuilt synagogue, they raise money for a new balcony, only to discover that Rabbi David intends to spend their funds on a new Torah scroll instead. Cue the female rebellion, bravely led by determined Etti. Also featuring a romantic subplot involving Etti's niece (Yafit Asulin), who falls in love with David's assistant (Assaf Ben Shimon), director Emil Ben Shimon's The Women's Balcony deftly mixes laughs and sharp commentary. Recommended. (S. Granger)