To Take a Wife (Velakahat Leha Isha). DVD. Format: PAL

Available in PAL (Europe) system ONLY

If you're in North America, Japan, Korea, the Philippines and parts of South America, you use NTSC.
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Israel (2005)

Length: 97 Min.

Genre: Drama

Director: Ronit and Shlomi Elkabetz

Starring: Ronit Elkabetz

Language: Hebrew

Subtitles: English, Hebrew

Co-directed by Shlomi Elkabetz and his sister Ronit Elkabetz, who takes the lead role, To Take A Wife is a haunting, claustrophobic portrait of a loveless marriage held together in a vice of religious and social convention. In the confines of a small apartment building in Haifa, 1979, Vivian (Ronit Elkabetz) is surrounded by men from her family and community who desperately try and convince her that she doesn't need the divorce from her traditionalist husband, Elyahoo (Simon Abkarian) that she craves. They tell her he is a good guy; he doesn't beat her, why should she complain? She stays, but so does her pained expression. She tends to the demands of her four children, acts as hairdresser for friends and neighbours in her apartment building, and has cold, confrontational conversations with Elyahoo. When an old lover calls her, there is a suggestion she may escape the bland authority of her husband.

2004 FIPRESCI International Critics Award - Awarded to the best first or second feature at The Times bfi London Film Festival.