Homosexuality within the Haredi community

 Pink Lady, directed by Nir Bergman, is a new Israeli feature film, currently playing in movie theaters in Israel.  It is a touching, intimate and tragic portrayal of married life within the Haredi community. 

It is also a film about homosexuality.  Homosexuality within this community is still considered deviant behavior and therefore, I felt it was like watching something from a completely different anthropological setting! 

This is not the first film about homosexuality within the Haredi community, but it is the first in which we experience the point of view of the woman who feels trapped in a marriage that just isn’t working.

On the background of the alleyways of Jerusalem, we meet Bati and Lazar, who are apparently happily married with three children under the age of 8.  Bati discovers that Lazar is being blackmailed for large sums of money because of his intimate behavior with his yeshiva study partner.  The next hard-hitting realization is that her husband is not so interested in her sexually. Even though Bati believes strongly in the power of prayer and the possibility of God intervening and changing her husband’s behavior, there is nothing wrong in trying to take matters in your own hands.  With the help of a less religious friend who she meets at the mikveh where she works, Bati decides to try shopping for alluring intimate apparel.  Slowly, Bati acquires more understanding and undergoes self-discovery.

The scenes between all the women, where they talk in hushed whispers about their marital and sexual problems, are fascinating.  They speak in euphemisms, but they are startingly forthright, concerned, and open with each other.

Nir Bergman makes wonderful films about people, their emotions, their problems, and their relationships.  He is well-known for BrokenWings, Saving Neta, Here We Are, Intimate Grammar, and In Treatment (script).

Pink Lady is available from Go2Films.

Watch thetrailer here.