30 Second Bottom Line: Two sisters, one married and the other engaged, discuss the future of their lives in a community where men make all the decisions. In ten years of marriage, one sister has not borne a child. Although she and her husband have a passionate loving relationship, they are deemed outcasts by the community for being childless. The engaged sister does not love the man the Rabbi has arranged for her to marry. She loves another and is unsure if she should marry him. Both women make difficult decisions that change the course of their lives.
Story Line: As Meir (Yoram Hattab) dresses in the morning, he expresses outspoken prayers of thankfulness to his external God. The most telling one is that he thanks God that he was "…not created as a woman". Before he leaves the room, Meir lovingly tells his wife Rivka (Yael Abecassis) how much he respects her. By the look in his eyes you believe that this is not meant in a condescending way. The fundamental belief of the men within the ultra orthodox Jewish sect of Hasidism provides the framework of everything that occurs in the film.
Malka (Meital Barda) tells her sister Rivka that she hears she is soon to be married per a decision by the Rabbi. She does not know the man or even his name. Malka is in love with Yaakov (Sami Hori), a man not acceptable to her religious order; he is a rock singer and dresses in blue jeans rather than the conservative dress of the Rabbi and men in their community. When Rivka tells Malka that her wedding night was the most wonderful day in her life, they both glow inside. Malka observes however that if she marries someone other than Yaakov, it would be her worse night ever. Rivka was a virgin until her marriage and Malka will be also. At the request of Malka, Rivka explains the actions of Meir leading the night of their love making which set the background for a powerful scene with Malka a short time later.
Meir believes that one should do as the Rabbi says. He is joined by a number of other men whose primary focus in life is to pray and ensure that woman fulfill their mission of having children and taking care of the home. Malka's intended is one who prays so loudly that he would make any sanctified African-American preacher sound like he had no tongue. Clearly he is a zealot within what is already a strict religious order.
The men are very much full of themselves. Even during the marriage ceremony, there's no doubt that the thoughts and feelings of the women do not count.
Malka is trapped in a marriage she does not want. Rivka accepts the notion that the "..only task of a daughter's life is to bring children into the world" and that …a "woman's only joy is raising the husbands children". It's believed that "sterility is a curse" and it never occurs to them that the reason Malka and Meir have no children after ten years of marriage is because he is shooting blanks. Malka is tested and the Dr. tells her she should be able to conceive. Meir cannot be tested, as they believe that "thou shall not spill thy seed in vain".
Rivka becomes depressed after Meir follows a particularly harsh order from the Rabbi regarding their relationships. She shares this with Malka who tells her she is "suffocating"…. you know that they both are. The transformation of spirit of Rivka and Malka brings into focus the potential conflicts between ones religion, community acceptance, peers and desire for individual freedom of thought and actions.
Kadosh gives a fresh perspective on a happy ending to a movie. As the credits were rolling, people just sat in there seats thinking about the power of love and one's individual spirit.
Tell Me More About It: Sometimes the very best films are not the easiest ones to watch. One emotionally connects with a story most often when you fully understand the value of something that was once there and is now gone never to return. If the "soul mate once in a lifetime love" is lost, by definition, while things may improve, they will never return to where they were. If only people "did the right thing", at the right time, their full potential could be realized.
Kadosh is a woman's film that all movie-loving adults should see. At various points in our life, we all stand at the proverbial fork in the road where you take a one way path to the future. Things will be as they will be, not necessarily as you wanted.
Some may say the movie unfolds too slowly and I would take exception with that. Kadosh allows, not forces us to think and feel the changes Rivka and Malka endure and to an extent Meir and Yaakov experience. This occurs as certain words are spoken, or not; how one is touched, or not and what the eyes say, should the mind allow them to meet, or not.
A religious sect with such strong no nonsense beliefs can be compared to a cult that does no harm as the leader does not enrich people at the expense of others or lead mass suicides. Disasters don't just happen to large groups by evil people; they can also happen to only one and that is one too many.
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