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Ramleh
serves to juxtapose two different families.
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Michal
Aviad, Israel, 2001, 58 min.
Four
extremely diverse women in the heart of an Israeli town stand at the
crossroads of a life falling fast apart in Ramleh, a quietly
desperate film from Israeli director Michal Aviad that premiered in
the U.S. at the Human Rights Watch Film Festival in New York last
week. While the women featured are traveling opposing religious
paths, they are sadly unaware of the complex connections they share
from the milieu of Ramleh.
Ramleh,
a former Palestinian territory, lies between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
It “serves as a microcosm of the beliefs, biases and conflicts of
women living in [Israel] today.” Aviad, who filmed the movie
between the general elections of 1999 and 2001, said her love affair
with Ramleh began when a member of the conservative Jewish Shas
party shot four Jewish girls for going out with Arab girls.
But
in investigating this crime Aviad turns her attention to the women
of Ramleh. She profiles four women – a 31-year-old Muslim teacher
and law student, two orthodox Jewish women who have rediscovered
their faith and support Shas, and a immigrant single-mother who
returned to Israel with her two daughters to establish a new life.
These women are as different as can be; yet they live in a vastly
patriarchal setting where they face the same restrictions and
cultural biases.
“Part
of making the film was unlocking the gates of many communities,”
Aviad said in a Q&A following the film. “In a place where
nationality and displacement … are at play with patriarchy, it’s
fatal”
Aviad
treatment of the women is evenhanded to a zenith. She let’s the
scenes tell the story while inserting her omniscient presence
through poignant voiceovers. She builds such a comfortable
relationship with the four women that the camera seems a benign
force pushed into the corner. The film is neither pro-Israeli nor
pro-Palestinian but merely an introduction into the personal
influences that feed a charged political landscape.
In
the first scenes of the film we meet Orly and Sima, the two Jewish
women shopping on the street market for groceries. They live for
their faith, covering their hair and dressing modestly. Yet as they
see Muslim women also in hijaab and jelbab (full-length
robe), the similarities of faith are lost to Arab-Israeli mistrust
and hatred. Then there is Gehad, the Muslim teacher who adheres to
basic parts of her faith while rejecting other restrictions. She is
perhaps most tolerant of all the women – she is very pro
Palestinian yet has Jewish friends at the same time.
And
finally there is Svetlana, a moderate Jew who immigrated to Israel
from Bukhara. She is perhaps the liberated of all the women, free
from all patriarchal trappings, which also is a drawback for her as
she searches for work in an increasingly orthodox-Jewish business
community.
Svetlana
is the biggest unresolved question in Ramleh. It is difficult to
understand her motivation for returning to Israel. She wants to be a
teacher but ends up as a manicurist because most male employers view
her as a religious risk sans husband. In this male-dominated world
she finds some sort of safety that is unapparent to the viewer.
In
the 1999 general elections Orly and Sima campaign hard for Bibi
Netanyahu, who is up against the more moderate Ehud Barak. They meet
daily with other women and converge in bomb shelter meetings to
bring other Jewish women into orthodoxy. In a conversation with an
easy-going friend, Sima tells her to cover her hair so her husband
will be happy. Sima teaches her daughter to kiss the Rabbi’s
picture in their house and beg blessings from her husband.
Hers
and Orly’s lives are filled with days of housecleaning, child
rearing and other household duties all in the context of their
strong faith. To the viewer it seems they have given up their total
identity to be subservient to the men in their lives and strict
teachings of the Jewish faith. Yet there is strength in their
choice, for they draw pride from their choice of lifestyle.
Gehad,
on the other hand, fights against the Islamic framework as dictated
by her parents, brothers and the Palestinian males of Ramleh. She
whispers to a friend on the phone that she doesn’t know what to do
beyond her law degree. She feels trapped, unable to marry the man
she loves and to leave her parent’s home. Gehad teaches her pupils
about the Palestine that was destroyed in 1948.One student asks her
if the Palestine refugees are like Kosovo refugees. “No,” Gehad
says to him. “Unlike Kosovo refugees, we didn’t get to go back
[to our homeland].”
Gehad
votes for Barak in 1999, as did most Arab-Israelis. When he is
elected into office, Orly and Sima mourn for the loss of Shas. Their
hatred of Arabs becomes apparent as one says, “It brings me great
sorrow to see an Arab happy.” These feelings dangerously smolder
under the placid streets of Ramleh. Gehad also mocks orthodox Jews,
cheering at the downfall of Netanyahu.
Yet
in 2001 Shas comes back full force with the victory of Ariel Sharon.
Gehad consoles her stricken mother. “At worst a war will break
out,” she casually says. It is an eerie foreshadow of horrors to
come. But whatever is to befall these women, one thing is certain
– they will find a way to survive on their own terms. To see Ramleh
is to see a bit of what drives all women in the region, whether they
be Jewish or Muslim. 
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