Ha-Sodot

But the ending is a tad dated on the choices available or i might be too presumptuous.

Covers a lot of life choices on what's right and wrong and the in between. And how a book written 2000 years and more ago could dictate ones life action and false righteousness.

Film for thought!

I saw this film tonight and was utterly blown away...It seems that the quality of Israeli films has drastically increased in recently years, but this film in particular hits all the right notes of comedy and tragedy that truly inspire.

The plot is multifaceted and contains multiple layers and questions. Indeed, it is far more ambitious in the tale it weaves than most.

A lesser film would settle for the storyline of the uptight girl taught a life lesson as she helps an elder, or the uptight girl falling in love and learning to live life not by the rules, or else maybe tentatively learn to question her religious upbringing, but this film manages to weave all of these elements together and truly make them sing.

The characters are without exception well fleshed out and wonderful. They all feel like real human beings rather than caricatures. In particular, the main love story is poignant and well fleshed out. The tragedy of forbidden desire is truly a tangible ingredient in the film's brew.

One of my favorite things about non-American cinema in general, but especially Israeli film, in fact, is the way they show love and the human body in a beautiful and sensual fashion without over dramatizing or being untrue. Last years Haboah ("The Bubble") did this exceptionally well, as does this film...

This was a truly powerful film that challenged notions of religious authority and hierarchy will simultaneously treating them with the utmost respect and a mysterious power. Absolutely worth seeking out and seeing.

The orthodox religious and studious Jewish Naomi (Ania Bukstein) is the daughter of a prominent rabbi and is promised to marry the arrogant yeshiva student Michael (Guri Alfi). Naomi secretly dreams on becoming a rabbi and after the death of her mother, she succeeds in convincing his father to postpone her marriage and be sent to the traditional Seminary of Knowledge and Truth in the ancient city of Safed in the mountains. The grieving Naomi shares a room with the outcast and free-spirited Michelle (Michal Shtamler) and two other roommates. Naomi and Michelle are assigned by the headmistress to help Anouk (Fanny Ardant), a woman that spent fifteen years in prison for killing her lover, and is terminal with cancer. Anouk asks for the purification Kabalistic ritual Tikkun to reach God, and the girls decide to help her. Meanwhile Naomi falls in love for Michelle and she finds in the Bible that their desire is not considered a sin in the eyes of God. While assisting Anouk, Naomi tries to convince her beloved friend that their relationship is not wrong in a repressive society ruled and judged by men.

"Ha-Sodot" a.k.a. "The Secrets" is a beautiful, sensitive and transgressor romance in a society ruled by conservative rabbis and extremely repressive with women. I immediately recalled Peter Jackson's "Heavenly Creatures" and the platonic love of Juliet Hilme and Pauline Parker. Further, Ania Bukstein and Michal Shtamler slightly resemble Kate Winslet and Melanie Lynskey in the beginning of their careers. It is engaging to see in 2009 such different society when compared with the western culture, and a director exposing this situation without any judgment or manipulation. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Segredos Íntimos" ("Intimate Secrets")

There are so many poorly made, self-conscious and annoying so-called art house films out there, and then there is this gem of a movie. I sincerely hope it gets a U.S. art cinema release. It's not often I am still remembering the characters, the passion of the heart, the location and faith awakening all in one post-viewing memory.

The actors are all uniformly true to to their characters, and really excellent at involving us in their personal tests of faith and moral dilemma. The orthodoxy of their faith, positioned against a seeping modern day sensibility surrounds us as effectively as the location photography transports us (American audiences) to a world we know little about.

A friend told me to see "this lesbian movie." It's not that. It's a story of girls in a repressed society dealing with their first sexual awakening and affection confused bonding as a portion of the story of immersion in their faith and how it transforms their relationship with each other in their involvement with a strange, mystical and salvation-seeking non-Jew.

This is a uniformly excellent film. In the openness of the locations and the beautiful music, the closeness of the camera work puts us in a claustrophobic male-dominated society, just at a moment in time when women are establishing their place in their religion and in their society.

I spend a lot of time in theaters. It's not often I come away with a feeling I have truly experienced a romance with faith, with the human heart and with the written word so totally in one film.

Congratulations to the filmmakers and actors. I sincerely hope this movie finds its best audience in American theaters.

(I am not Jewish and was deeply moved and intrigued by the religious material presented)

I don't have too much to add to the previous comments but I wonder why there have been no comments since last October. This movie must be hiding for the right opportunity(ies) to be seen.

I previewed this movie as part of an upcoming Jewish Film Festival and it was far and away the best drama that I have seen, perhaps in several years.

I thought the Orthodox Jewish milieu was going to be a turn-off but that only added to a great story, directing, acting, setting, and scenery.

The actresses seemed to be familiar types from other, English-language, films but they probably were not. Just a very good experience.