Product Description

Studio: Kino International Release Date: 09/12/2006 Run time: 94 minutes

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #94589 in DVD
• Brand: Kino Video
• Released on: 2006-09-12
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: Arabic, French, Hebrew
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 94 minutes

Customer Reviews

"A Fantasy Of Fusion" ~ Concerning Thought, Belief, God And The Continuity Of Tradition
Note: French and Hebrew with English subtitles.

`La Petite Jerusalem' released in '05 is an intelligent, thoughtful and articulate exploration of the question "What is reason capable of." In the context of this film it appears to be capable of luring Laura (Fanny Valette), an educated free thinking philosophy student out of the protective confines of her Orthodox Jewish community and blantantly defying its traditions to pursue a romantic relationship with a Moslem co-worker. While most of the ensuing chaos that occurs over such a relationship is predictable, the ongoing philosophical/religious debate between Laura and her trusted confidant Mathilde (Elsa Zylberstein) are quite penetrating and insightful. Those sequences along with the subplot concerning Mathilde and her struggle to faithfully follow the teachings of the Torah while adequately fulfilling her husbands physical desires are my favorite moments in the film.

`La Petite Jerusalem' provides a fascinating peek into modern Jewish culture which makes it definitely worth a watch whether you're of the Jewish persuasion or not.

Identity Building
This is a great movie to show young adults the struggles in identity building be you Jewish or otherwise. Highly Recommended!

Freedom vs. law . . .
Director Karin Albou says she was only secondarily interested in her characters as Orthodox Jews, living in Paris. She was more concerned with the meaning of freedom - especially freedom for women in a highly regulated and constricted culture - and the rule of law. On the one hand we have the Talmudic law, which constrains one of the two sisters at the center of the film, who is married with four young children. Her husband, she learns has been unfaithful to her, we're given to understand, because of her unwillingness to partake in sexual pleasure she believes has not been granted to her as an observant Jew. The law, as it is explained to her, frees her to win back her husband's affections.

Her unmarried sister, a university philosophy student, understands from her reading of Kant that the law frees her from succumbing to disruptive passions, and she finds herself fighting the attraction that draws her to a co-worker, a secular Muslim. Meanwhile, the sisters' Moroccan mother attempts with spells, talismans, and introductions to eligible bachelors to marry her off. Freedom for the sisters' mother is being taken into the home of a man who can provide for her and protect her. The world outside the home is, she believes, dangerous, and she lives at the pleasure of her son-in-law, the man of the house. While she does not wish to leave Paris, she acquiesces without complaint as he announces that they will all emigrate to Israel.

Finally, the film is a meditation on the paradoxes that occur where freedom and law converge. Nicely filmed and edited, the story is elliptical and told in fragments that are sometimes left to the viewer to interpret. The pieces, much like the argument of the film, are not meant to fit neatly together. The DVD includes an interview with the director.