Movie Review

Directed by Gidi Dar, starring Shuli Rand (Rabbi Moshe Balanga), Michal Bat Sheva Rand (Mali Balanga), Shaul Mizrahi (Yossof), Ilan Ginani (Eliahu), Hebrew with English subtitles; 2004 Israeli Critics Award for Best Picture, 110 minutes, 2004.

The Jewish festival of Succoth, The Feast of Tabernacles or Booths is celebrated in September/ October and follows five days after Yom Kippur a season of fasting and repentance. In traditional Jewish families a booth or temporary structure is built outside and families live in it for a week to remember the days in the wilderness during the Exodus. The spiritual symbolism is to remember one's vulnerability and dependence upon G-D. The structures are by definition flimsy (the world is temporary), enclosed only on three sides and open in the roof to see the sky. Sides can be plywood but roofs are constructed of branches. It is a particular blessing to be able to entertain guests in this time, hence the title of the story, the Aramaic word for guests.

There are four elements that are particular symbols for this time; the citron symbolizes righteousness; the palm, the learned; the myrtle, a doer and the willow, a simple person.

Moshe Balanga is a rabbi in Jerusalem down on his luck. His yeshiva won't pay him because they don't think he is there enough! His wife Mali hides from the rent collector. Both of them pray very hard for a miracle and one happens or at least a random act of kindness happens and they come into some money. This allows them to build a succah (booth), prepare food, praise God and by a twist of fate, entertain guests. The guests turn out to be a couple of characters from Moshe's criminal past, a secret he has kept from Mali. Events build to a comic misunderstanding that reinforce the true nature of their vulnerability as faithful followers of God. They end up living out the inner spirituality of Succoth rather than just observing the symbols and images of the religious festival.

In the final scenes, Mali reveals that she is pregnant, a state for which they have longed but in which they have been disappointed. While the symbolism of Succoth relates to The Exodus the characters are clearly Abraham and Sara who entertained angels unawares. Like Sara, Mali is suspicious of the "guests" and while she is grateful for their good fortune (she attributes it to Moshe's fervent prayer) she is also more the figure of the myrtle, the Doer, the practical one who will not live forever on assurances that "everything will turn out OK", it is "in God's hands". In a nice piece of symbolism Mali leaves Moshe (temporarily) and the "religious neighbourhood" in which they live and descends some stairs through a passageway to emerge into the world of traffic and advertising; the 'real' world.

This is a funny story with strong religious activity. Prayer is an obvious feature of people's lives but prayer that involves yelling, arguing, crying, singing and dancing. Not your basic BCP Matins! While watching the movie is a kind of interfaith experience, a plunge into a very different religious community, the life experience and spirituality of these very likeable people will be familiar to any Eucharistic parish family.