Sentenced to Marriage (Mekudeshet)
Directed by Anat Zuria
Distributed by Women Make Movies
“My problem,” says Rachel, a radio producer and mother of four, “is that I value justice above all.”
Rachel, like Tamara and Michelle, the two other protagonists in Anat Zuria’s Sentenced to Marriage, has been waiting five years for her husband to relent and grant her a divorce. But while Rachel calls her demand for justice a “problem,” it is, ultimately, her key to liberation: Only after an enraged frenzy in the courthouse, does the judge agree to coerce her husband into granting her a divorce.
Despite its occasional clumsiness, the winner of Best Documentary in the Jerusalem Film Festival soars in its clear and honest depiction of Israel’s outrageous divorce proceedings. It is rare, given the Western world’s adherence to political correctness, to see the blatant forms of institutional sexism that Sentenced depicts. But if the daily struggles of the agunot – women legally bound to their husbands – in Sentenced grip us, the film is jarringly remiss where it transparently substitutes acted scenes and simulated voiceovers for reality, and fails to provide pertinent information about agunot in Israeli society.
Though statistics about the numbers of Israeli agunot would have provided an important foundation for the film, we learn at least one essential piece of historical information: Since 1953, when the Israeli government passed the Rabbinical Courts Law, establishing that “matters of divorce among Jews will be under the sole jurisdiction of the rabbinical courts,” a divorce is only valid if the husband willingly consents. In order to mitigate the discriminatory ruling, though, there is an equally ancient law that states that a husband can be forced, and even beaten until he relents. Nevertheless, the judges refuse to enforce this harsh law on Tamara’s, Rachel’s, and Michelle’s husbands, even after years of ugly court proceedings.
On top of the humiliation of waiting years for their freedom as their husbands carry on their sexual and personal lives, the agunot are repeatedly maligned in the court system. The women are consistently interrupted and patronizingly addressed as giveret (“lady”), their testimonies are openly doubted by the judges, and they stand helplessly by as all bear witness to their husbands’ arrogance and disdain for their trials.
From the very start, the film exposes the viewer to the raw injustices suffered by Israeli agunot. We accompany them to excruciating visits to the courthouse, grit our teeth through the hearings, and behold bleary images of anonymous figures cycling though the court’s long hallways.
Most impressive about the film is its candid access to the women’s lives, and its ability to almost seamlessly weave a narrative without once integrating Zuria’s voice and questions. Reut, the veritable heroine of the film, and the other “rabbinic pleaders” shatter notions of what constitutes feminist activism and organizing. We watch as the Orthodox woman expertly soothes her clients, elucidates the finer points of the law, and vows to continue fighting, even when Tamara wants to back down.
“Life without a divorce is not really life,” Reut tells her, vowing to continue the struggle. As the final credits roll, her words ring in our ears, leaving us unsettled and angered, incredulous that such blatant injustice is carried out in the name of the Jewish tradition.
