"The Secrets (Ha-Sodot)," Avi Nesher, Israel/France, 2007, 35mm, 120 min.
This epic film by well known Israeli director Avi Nesher tells the heart-wrenching story of young Naomi, who postpones her arranged marriage to study the Talmud and holds sacrilegious ideas of becoming a female Rabbi. The film takes place in Safed, one of the four holy cities of Israel with deep historical connections to the study of the kabbalah. Naomi convinces her father to let her enroll in a seminary for girls in Safed, where she meets the exotic Michelle. Their relationship, in all its heartbreaking volatility, is the real focus of the film. It's beautifully shot and quite well-acted, especially by well-known French actress Fanny Ardant, who plays a mysterious woman who Naomi and Michelle try desperately to redeem before she succumbs to cancer. "The Secrets," takes a look into a traditional society we rarely see, a place where homosexuality is barely acknowledged, let alone tolerated. An excellent film.
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