Yaël Abecassis Movies

Filmmakers Ronit Elkabetz and Shlomi Elkabetz revisit some of the characters from their 2004 picture Ve Lakachta Lecha Isha in this mordant examination of family life. It's 1991, the Middle East is still reeling from the impact of the Gulf War, and Ilana (Keren Mor) is an Israeli woman who has become a widow in the wake of her husband's unexpected death. After the funeral, members of the Ilana come to her home for the Jewish ritual of sitting shiva, in which the immediate family observes a week of prayer and contemplation as well-wishers visit. However, Ilana's family does not always get along, and as eight siblings and a number of parents, aunts, uncles and in-laws are brought together in close quarters, tensions rise to the surface over the course of the week. Haim (Moshe Ivgy) is a businessman whose firm is on the verge of bankruptcy after hiring a number of family members and close friends who've let him down. Viviane (Ronit Elkabetz) has left her husband Eliyahu (Simon Abkarian), though for some reason he thinks joining her for shiva will bring them back together, and she finds herself bickering with her sister and longtime rival Simone (Hanna Azoulay Hasfari). Jacques (Rafi Amzaleg) and his wife Lili (Yael Abecassis) are at each others throats, and Therese (Ruby Shoval) and Evelyne (Evelin Hagoel) sped most of their time in the kitchen, spreading malicious gossip about their relatives. Les Septs Jours (aka The Seven Days) was screened as part of the Critics Week series at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Directed by Amos Gitai, Alila is based on Yehoshua Kenaz's novel Returning Lost Love and chronicles the trials and tribulations of every day life in Tel Aviv. Most of the film revolves around an apartment block on the working-class borders of Tel Aviv, where the trysts of residents Hezi (Amos Lavie) and Gabi (Yael Abecassis) attract their neighbors' attention, as does the unauthorized construction of an additional wing to the building. A neighboring family patriarch, meanwhile, is dealing with legal troubles (he hired illegal Chinese construction workers), the AWOL status of his son, and his wife's affair with a younger man. A Holocaust survivor (Yosef Carmon) and his Filipino housekeeper (Lyn Shiao Zamir) further illustrate the conflict between Jews, Jews of different extractions, and Arabs in the community. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide

A dark drama of women living in a society where they are second-class citizens, Kadosh/Sacred begins with Meir, an Orthodox Jew living in the Mea Shearim district of Jerusalem, greeting the day with his morning prayers, which includes the phrase, "Thank you, oh Lord, for not having made me a woman." Meir begins to understand just how poorly regarded women can be in the Orthodox faith when his rabbi suggests he should leave his wife. Meir and Rivka (Yael Abecassis) have been married for ten years and have a solid relationship based on affection and mutual respect. However, they have been unable to have children, and as Meir is reminded, the Talmud says a woman without children may as well be dead. Consequently, the rabbi advises Meir to divorce Rivka and take up with a younger woman who can give him a family. Meanwhile, Rivka's younger sister, Malka (Meital Barda), is soon to wed Yossef (Uri Ran Klauzner) in a match arranged by their parents, even though Malka loves another man, Yaakov (Sami Hori), who has dared to question the teachings of the Orthodox faith. Yossef soon proves to be blind to Malka's emotional and physical needs, and she begins to wonder how long she can continue to live within this circle, even though it is the only world she knows. Destined to be controversial in its native Israel, Kadosh/Sacred was shown in competition at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

The stories of three Israeli women in varying stages of desperation and hysteria are depicted in this anthology. The first segment, "Sharona Honey," closely follows the difficulties suffered by a particularly lovely woman who is being ardently pursued by a quartet of men, all of whom want her to bear their child - none of them with the slightest interest in discovering who she is. In "Operation Cat," a recently separated woman frantically tries to get the authorities to remove the obstacles which prevent a kitten from being rescued from a sewer. "Divorce" shows just how far an aggrieved policewoman will go to prevent her husband from skipping out of the country without giving her a divorce. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide