In her Image | Towards an Artistic Biography of Ronit Elkabetz

Je T’aime, Ronit Elkabetz Board of Trustees Design Museum Holon Catalogue and Exhibition Special Thank You Curator and Catalog Editor: Ya’ara Keydar Moshe (Peter) Peterburg, chairman Graphic Design: Kobi Franco, Zohar Koren The Elkabetz Family, Avner Yashar, Alber Elbaz, Artistic Director: Shlomi Elkabetz Ron Arad, Honorary Member Translation: Ishai Mishory David Adika, Joseph Dadoune, Yaniv Persy, Betty Eldad, Jacob Even, Honorary Member Construction: Yoav Graphics & Exhibitions Ronen Levin, Smadar Azriel, Uziel Amir Danny Weiss, Director General Yoram Amiga Hair Styling: Avi Malka Maya Dvash, Acting Chief Curator The late David Azrieli Print: A.R print Ltd. We wish to Thank our Generous Donors The Falic Family, Florence and Gilles Gaston-Dreyfus, Orna Barkat Mediatheque Ora Ben-Dror Fashion sculptor: Victor Bellaish Emma and Philippe Cohen, Jacques Tolédano, BY TERRY Avi Avraham, CPA (Isr.), CFO The late Marie Brandolini Art decor: Ehud Gutterman de GUNZBURG Hilla Sherman, Director of Marketing Marcantonio Brandolini d’Adda Research consultants: Yigal Nizri, Itzik Badash Norma Tal, Production and Events Management Beth Rudin DeWoody Video Art: Shlomi Elkabetz Thanks Zadok Soffer, Technical Manager The late Dr. Shulamit Katzman Video production: Galit Cahlon Gili Adler, Luc-Antoine Robert, Michal Aviad, Remy Badan, Avi Mizrachi, Maintenance Manager Evrona Katzman Video editing: Lev Goltser, Etamar Kadusheviz Roi Baron, Mika Bashan, Nati Ben Hanan, Efrat Bigger, Dalia Neumann, Digital Management Karine Ohana Soundtrack designer and editor: Itzik Cohen, Jungle Sound Assaf Bitton, Films Boutique, Haim Bouzaglo, Sharon Galit Leybo, Marketing and communications Shalom Seidler Textual consulting: Tamar Tauber-Pauzner PhD. Brunsher, Comme Il Faut: Sybil Goldfainer, UGC Distribution, Daniel Drenger, Daniel Wachsmann, Eyal de Leeuw, Adam Tihany Design Museum Holon Artists and photographers Digititle: Ami Vinter, Dikla Dori, Alfama Films, Directrice Tomer Spector, Curator Assistant and Resource development Museum Patrons Meital Weinberg Adar, Uri Gershuni, David Adika, Guy Isaac, Financière, Moshe and Liron Edery, Moshe Ederi, Anya Amnon Silber, Director of Education Regin Ganzi, Chairwoman, Friends of the Museum Miri Davidovitz, Anat Mosberg, Itzik Badash, Lior Danzig, Fleet, Oshra Gabizon Badash, Sagiv Galam, Gidi Dar, Shira Shoval, Director of Materials Library Tova & Sami Sagol, Keter Group Vardi Kahana, Cécile Burban, Uziel Amir, Nimrod Shanit, Nimrod Gilo, Amos Gitai, Jacob Goldwasser, Maysaloun Mor Laron, Production Management Ronit & Muki Schneidman Sharon Back, Isaac Shokal, Adi Kaplan, Gil Hayun, Ofir Kedmi, Hamoud, Jeff James, Perry Kafri, Ziv Katanov, Keren Harel, Lee Mandelsberg, Production Assistant Meytal Danino & Gil Shwed Itzick Biran, Ohad Romano, Chelli Goldenberg, Shai Goldman, Bilha, Deakla, Gideon and Omer Keydar, David Keydar Anat Ran, Board of Trustees and Friends of the Museum Baroness Beatrice Rosenberg (Rothschild) Amit Berlowitz, Philippe Quaisse, Eitan Tal, Tully Chen, Luft, Dover Koshashvili, Shlomit Kovner, Tali Kushnir, Adi Hamer and Stav Axenfeld, Content Editing The Feiner Eden Family Eytan Shouker, Yosef Joseph Dadoune, Bruno Charoy Idan Laros, Jérôme Lasserre, Ori Lehavi, Yael Lerer, Avi Levi, Yael Taragan and Noga Shimshon, Collection Manager Recanati Winery Dorit Levinstein, Jason Little, Bracha and Michael Luft, Ofer Luft, Yaara Mann, Chen Mann Bodek, Eran Merav, Naama Arbel, Head of educational programs Aya Sinai, Pedagogical coordinator, "Karev" Program Museum Supporters Yaron Minkowski, Alec Mishory, Laurette Monconduit, Valeria Itzhakov, Administrative coordinator, "Karev" Program Rachelli Mishori & Leon Koffler Yom Tov Moshe, Guy Nattiv, Amandine Pâris, Norma Revital Markovich, Operations coordinater, Educaion dept. Osnat & Dr. Jerry Kohen Productions: Assaf Amir, Nicolas Pasco, Aviv Peres, Guy Pines, Efrat Barak, Project Manager Materials Library Irma & Avi Michaeli Bella Polikova, Inbal Preger, Hila Rachlin, Anati Rakocz, Talia Mukmel, Materials Collection Manager Etty & Gabi Rotter, CASTRO Rani Blair, Motty Reif, Nadav Rosenberg, Tal Rosenfarb, Shira Kimmel, Instruction Manager Materials Library Yifat Gurion Noa Roth, Michael Rozenbaum, Yuval Saar, Billy Segal, Sahar Diana Petrosiants, Desk Manager Sotheby's Israel Shalev, Tamar Shalom Naim, Yoav Raz, Naama Shefi, Reut Levi, Museum Secretary Orna Schestowitz Xenia Shelkovskaya, Yael Shenberger, Gili Shilo, Israel Tagori, Maor Tamam Shua, Michael Tapuah, Moti Bechor, Maintenance Dudu Tassa, Tel Aviv Cinematheque Library, Nicolas Topiol, No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a Holon Municipality retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, This catalog was produced with Transfax Films: Mare Rozenbaum, United King, Motti Sasson, Mayor electrical, mechanical, or otherwise,without first seeking the the assitance of Mifal Hapais Liel Wachsmann, Dominique Welinski, Keren Yedaya, Yossi Silman, Managing Director permission of the copyright owners and the publishers. Council for the Culture and Arts Jenny Yoffe, Tamara Yovel Jones, Merav Yudilovitch, Ran Zuriel Every effort has been made to locate the copyright owners of the texts and the images included in this book. Omissions brought to our attention will be corrected accordingly. ISBN: 978-965-7710-06-7 Design Museum Holon, Israel , 2017 © All rights reserved Garment, Body and Soul Elkabetz fully took over management of the sale: she priced the clothes, labelled them and added on each a special dedication. Throughout the sale, she worked busily like an haute couture sales lady, paying attention to every buying woman, urging them to take a piece of her into their private world, modelling garments on her own body, cleaning fitting rooms and hanging items back in place. This revealed the intimate connection she had had with the items, shattering any potential barriers between herself and the other women. Elkabetz’s conduct that evening made it clear that her total approach was not only reserved for the screen. The last meeting, which was an intimate meeting between Elkabetz and other women, revolved around her wardrobe. Garments were never simply clothes for her, and the intimate items she had decided to pass on, now stripped from her wardrobe and about to move into someone else’s, still carried something of her with them. Her clothes are her. With her own body and soul she portrayed exactly what we had formulated in In her Image: words in the book that had begun the connection between herself and Sister. I thank Revital Madar, activist-member at Sister, for her assistance in writing this text. Shula Keshet is an artist, curator and the director-general of Sister - for Women in Israel. Gifted actress, screenwriter and award–winning director – Ronit Elkabetz (1964–2016) transformed Israeli and European cinema with a series of memorable characters: women on the margins of society struggling for their liberty against the institutions of family, tradition, marriage and the state. In the years 1989—2016, Elkabetz participated in 27 films, 13 theater productions, three television movies and four series. Elkabetz was born in Be’er Sheva on November 27, 1964, the eldest daughter of parents who had recently immigrated to Israel from Morocco. When Towards an Artistic Biography of Ronit ELkabetz she was ten, the family relocated to the northern town of Kiryat Yam, where she studied at the fashion department of the local high school. She began modeling before her 17th birthday. In August 1982, her portrait appeared on the cover of a local newspaper – the first of many Israeli and European news and fashion magazines that would devote their covers to her in the next three decades. An inside spread was entitled “Ronit El – The Claudia Cardinale of Haifa.” After her military service, she lived for periods in Netanya and Jerusalem, moving to Tel Aviv in 1987. Until the late 1980s, she worked in fashion – designing and sewing and working as a runway and photo Yigal Shalom Nizr i model – and trained in Paris and New York. In the winter of 1989, Elkabetz had her first stint, in the student film Busy Signal (1989), written and directed by Lital Dobrovitzky. Twenty‫־‬four‫־‬year‫־‬ old Elkabetz played a seasoned fashion model who storms into an introverted teenager’s space to win a contract with her brother. In April 1989, she shot for Daniel Wachsmann’s The Appointed 40 41 In Her Image Yigal Shalom Nizri [Hameyu’ad] (1990),[01] which has become the film opening Elkabetz’s official filmography. She also in the context of this festival, Gabi Eldor and Sinai Peter presented the groundbreaking played Oshra, channeling the mythical Canaanite goddess in the body of a magically gifted work Tonight We Dance Again. Following the festival, the show toured Israel. The play local young woman who appears in the life of Shmaya Ben David (Shuli Rand), a charismatic Nude Man with Red Loincloth by Gili Shanit and Evy Lipschitz opened in November 1992 Galilean preacher who is about to inherit his father’s holy seat. “Highly conspicuous, with at the Khan Theater, Jerusalem, and several months later at the Zionist of America House her angular face, a black turban teetering on her head,” a journalist reported from the set, Theater in Tel Aviv. Elkabetz and four other actors expressed Israeli anxieties surrounding the First Gulf War in movement and words. “Elkabetz has a harsh and hypnotizing stage is 24‫־‬year‫־‬old Ronit Elkabetz. Formerly of Haifa, and a fashion designer by trade, presence, and when she opens a pair of black eyes coupled with that cascade of black hair she has thus far been known as a photo model, and now a film actress. She is the for one minute she becomes [the character of] Leah’le from The Dybbuk,” a critic noted.[08] female lead. A short conversation with her suffices to clarify why she was chosen. February 1993 saw the premiere of Hypolitus, directed by Ofira Henig, at Habima Theater, She is almost exactly the character, slightly more mysterious, a black‫־‬and‫־‬white with Elkabetz playing Aphrodite. Two years after Tonight We Dance Again, Elkabetz again .”[02] look and a certain aloofness. She’s into magic. Acting, she says, “is in my blood collaborated with Eldor and Yigal Ezrati and their Teatron Mekomi (Local Theater Group). Their new adaptation of King Lear opened at Ramat Gan Theater in April 1994, following [03] “The film’s breakout is Ronit Elkabetz,” a critic noted, “real, absolute presence.” In August nine months of rehearsals. Elkabetz played Goneril, Lear’s eldest daughter. 1989, Elkabetz took part in the filming of Zvi Zelinger’s Good Neighbors (1991), which follows the journey of two Israelis through the newly‫־‬established independent state of Back in July 1990, shot Eddie King (1992), an avant‫־‬garde production of then‫־‬25‫־‬year‫־‬old Palestine, where they had formerly served in the military. In fluent Arabic, Elkabetz portrays Gidi Dar. She portrayed the character of Shoshana Cohen, whom the men who desire call the young Palestinian prostitute one of them visits. Julia. Ronit endowed her character with what can be termed, in retrospect, a postmodern Mizrahi quality. “She is supposed to be speaking with a French or North African accent During those years, Elkabetz plunged headlong into cinema and theater. Acting became but it sounds totally different,” one critic wrote.[09] “I am attracted to cinema that has a tool of self‫־‬investigation and self‫־‬becoming. “I am learning myself […] if I do not unconventional means of expression,” Elkabetz said when the movie opened.[10] Her understand my existential essence, I will not be able to understand further […] the main performance focused critical reception of her thespian abilities: “Elkabetz […] creates a thing is to know what I am, what am I here for,” she said in an interview. [04] Acquiescing to larger‫־‬than‫־‬life, mysterious, sexy and fascinating character. Perhaps the only one who really acting as a field where phenomenological questions were fiercely raised came naturally. uses her internal intuition, working from her senses, not her head.”[11] An electronic visual She claimed that during this period, the groundwork for the acting method that was to track cut from the film’s materials, The Apex of Total Disconnection, was first broadcast become identified with her was laid: on Israel Television’s then‫־‬experimental Channel Two.[12] In it, Elkabetz sampled singing by famed Egyptian singer Asmahan from the unfinished movie Passion and Revenge I began to discover and understand the burning need in me to act […] I think to (1944). Ariel Semel, who shot Eddie King, went on to work with Ronit and actors Shuli act is to be […] I suddenly understood I’d been given the opportunity to express Rand and Yitzhak Ben Tzur on a feature‫־‬length movie entitled Hiroshima Automatic, everything I had wanted to say […] or it would be most accurate to say that in fact which however was never finished.[13] In early 1992, Elkabetz first filmed for television. In I found a way of speaking. It also allowed me fulfill some passion in the world, he Blind Date, the fourth episode of television series Late Night Stories (written and directed [05] need to simultaneously be and disappear. by Mickey Bahagan) she played a woman on a date with a strange man at a restaurant. Another dramatic meeting between a man and a woman took place in the student film Ronit’s path to the theater passed through dance. “Movement takes you to a more surreal world than the realism of words,” she said. [06] In October 1990, Elkabetz took part in an García Márquez’s 1950 short story. Elkabetz played a prostitute who arrives daily at six to experimental dance‫־‬theater production entitled Bat Tzuza Group Presents: Urban Stories Jose’s restaurant, only this time she tries to make him believe she’d arrived fifteen minutes produced in the context of the Acco Festival of Other Israeli Theater. 42 The Woman Who Came at Six O’clock (1995), Shlomit Kovner’s movie adaptation Gabriel [07] In September 1991, early to set up an alibi for the murder of one of her clients. 43 In Her Image Yigal Shalom Nizri This kind of meeting was also the focus of her collaboration with Haim Bouzaglo, the In April 1997, while involved in several productions in Israel and just before her 33rd birthday, film Scar (1994). “Each meeting between a man and a woman is a mystery. Every meeting Elkabetz left her rented apartment in Tel Aviv and moved to Paris, driven by “the desire between a man and a woman is destined to fail,” she said when the film opened. [14] The for a cardinal, basic, fundamental change to the essence of my life,” she later said, “man movie’s style – a contemplative journey between Jerusalem, Jaffa, Tel Aviv, New York and goes on a journey to traverse from slavery to freedom; slavery to one’s fears, place, stigmas, Paris – stirred critical debate, winning its creators several Ophir Awards – the Israeli Oscars. home, norms, to what one has been habituated to think about one’s self; to one’s image.”[20] However Elkabetz received her first Ophir Award for Best Actress for another film, Sh’Chur She was admitted to the Théatre du Soleil, an avant‫־‬garde ensemble directed by Ariane (1994) by Hanna Azoulay‫־‬Hasfari (writer and actress) and Shmuel Hasfari (director). Elkabetz Mnouchkine (b. 1939), where she trained for eight months. A revolutionary figure similar to played Pnina, a young disabled woman of Moroccan descent with magic powers living in Graham, Mnouchkine would accompany her throughout her career. In July 1998, Elkabetz the south of Israel. “I needed to reach my Moroccan Arabic there, but from another place,” remounted Martha (directed by writer Emanuel Pinto) at the Golovin Dance Theater in [15] she said when it came out. The character of Pnina in Sh’Chur, a Mizrahi‫־‬feminist work that first posed the question of self‫־‬representation in Israeli culture, allowed Ronit an in the context of the Avignon Festival, and, following favorable reviews, at the Chapiteau du Cirque Romanès space, Paris (directed by Mendy Younas), in 1999. to her own Moroccan experience – home, family, religion, language – which would erupt even more forcefully in the Viviane Amsalem trilogy of a decade later. Her acting in Sh’Chur Zakia Tahiri and Ahmed Bouchaâla, a North African couple who work collaboratively, also signified the thrall her critics would fall under with her unique abilities. “Is this acting? saw her on closing night and invited her to take part in their first production. Made in Cinema has no acting, only theater does,” one critic wrote, France (2001), a comic drama first screened January 2001. Elkabetz’s first film in France, it appeared in July of the same year at the Jerusalem International Film Festival. She played There is something in her presence in the film that is a salve for the hardest moments. Sonia, a transgendered Algerian immigrant on a journey of survival and liberation. In 2000, And when she uses her secret powers, it is always on the human plane, always Elkabetz appeared in two episodes of the Israeli television series Florentine. In Paris, she there to heal things that have gone awry […] In her oversized clothes she presents participated for six months in a production of Ubu Roi, a Gary Stevens adaptation of the a gangly figure, ill‫־‬fitting bones, the gait of an immigrant who will never reach Alfred Jarry play, playing the role of Mother Ubu.[21] In the late 1990s, she completed work their goal, a gaze that simultaneously expresses great courage and the deepest on two screenplays which were not realized. The first was an original story entitled The fear, and a profound understanding of pain. Any pain, hers and others’, making Last Meeting; the other was a cinematic adaptation of Russian‫־‬born Hebrew poet and [16] life more tolerable. novelist David Vogel’s Facing the Sea, which he wrote in Paris in 1932. In March 1995, Ronit returned to the theater with Martha, a one‫־‬women show about dancer During these years, Paris was her home. “Have you lived in France?” she was asked in an [17] and choreographer Martha Graham (1894–1991), who was to accompany her ever since. interview several years prior to moving there. “Yes, I have lived there in the future,” she “Ronit Elkabetz has stopped surprising. She controls her body and voice and dances like a answered.[22] There is a line linking Morocco, her parent’s homeland and a country that was trained dancer,” a critic wrote.[18] Beginning November 1995 she appeared in Last Striptease, a controlled by France for four and a half decades, the immigrant tenements of Be’er Sheva political satire by Hillel Mittelpunkt at Tsavta Theater, and from March 1997 in a comedic role and Kiryat Yam of her childhood, and the City of Lights. “It’s like holding a key in your hand, in the show Indigo by Meir Sussman at Haifa Theater, both directed by Gedalia Besser. “This to open the door to a home that was once yours,” she later said, is the one and only show unequivocally and uninhibitedly pointing to our current political reality,” Elkabetz said when Striptease opened.[19] In 1996 she participated in Milim, Amos in a different incarnation. In a different state. You enter and it all comes flooding Gitai’s cinematic essay combining echoes of Yitzhak Rabin’s assassination with fragments back… the smells, the tunes, the language. Where does this language return to me of Josephus’ The Jewish War. In 1997, Elkabetz took part in a television movie produced for from? Where does this accent come back from? It’s as if I just needed to return here the series Short Stories about Love. The episode she starred in, Ben Gurion, was written by to close a chapter.[23] Tzahi Grad, Assi Dayan and Gil Levenberg, who also directed it. 44 45 In Her Image Yigal Shalom Nizri A starring role in Late Marriage (2001) drew Elkabetz back to shooting in Israel. The first I was surrounded my whole life with women who fought within the family unit movie by Georgian‫־‬Israeli filmmaker Dover Kosashvili, it deals with a Georgian family that to get an equal place, an honorable place, where you can live and try and fulfill wishes to wed son Zaza (Lior Ashkenazi) inside the community, though he is in love with yourself. Until at a certain point, they just capitulate to the edict of the ‘sanctity of Judith (Elkabetz), a Moroccan divorcee with a five‫־‬year‫־‬old daughter. It brought Elkabetz the family’ and decide to just go with it out of exhaustion. That’s my mother’s sister world renown, awards and critical acclaim. Later, she shot 12 episodes for television series and my grandmother’s sister‫־‬in‫־‬law, and my mother and her neighbor. I took from Franco and Spector, [24] broadcast starting November 2003, in which she played lawyer all of them, I invented nothing.[26] Daphna Spector. That year, Amos Gitai’s movie Alila, a fictional assemblage influenced by Yehoshua Kenaz’s novel Returning Lost Loves: A Novel, with Elkabetz playing a policewoman, Ronit‫־‬Viviane’s outcry refashioned Mizrahi women’s space of cultural reverberation, but debuted at the Venice Film Festival. Israeli criticism greeted it with a mixture of disinterest and derision, immediately disqualifying it. Elkabetz took on Viviane’s cause and frequently took on critics: Or (My Treasure, 2004), Keren Yedaya’s directorial debut, [25] marked another landmark in Elkabetz’s filmography and the history of social cinema generally. It was first screened Ashkenazi male criticism perceives Viviane as a paragon in fact when she capitulates, at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2004. Elkabetz plays Ruti, a woman living on the social bearing her pain in silence. The film is perceived as ‘quality cinema’ but the minute and geographical margins and bringing up a teenage daughter (Dana Ivgy), who is in she stands up to shout out her pain she is suddenly seen as a crazy psychopath, charge of the family’s finances. In late 2003, Elkabetz recorded a French monologue for her perception is simply warped. What is she ultimately trying to do? She is trying Israeli‫־‬born Iraqi singer Dudu Tassa’s version of the Iraqi song Fouq al nakhal (“Above to liberate herself, to scream her pain so that others can hear it, and we all know the Palm Trees”): “Sometimes I know not whence I came / Neither here, nor there,” well what happens when these women capitulate […] No one hears them. So what Elkabetz says as the figure of an immigrant. The song was included in the closing credits other option is there besides getting up, rising up with all your powers and fighting of Avi Nesher’s film Turn Left at the End of the World and in Tassa’s album Just on Time, your war?”[27] both of 2004. The spirit of the Elkabetz (paternal) and Ohayon (maternal) families infuse the entire 46 Family and immigration are the two paths that Elkabetz’s characters explore. They are trilogy. Upon their arrival in Israel, parents Eli Elkabetz (b. 1935) and Miriam (Marie) Elkabetz surmounted by Viviane Amsalem, whose voice was gradually exposed in the groundbreaking (b. 1942), wed back in Morocco, moved into an immigrant housing development on the trilogy she create with her brother Shlomi in the years 2004–2014 (To Take a Wife [Ve’Lakahta outskirts of Be’er Sheva, where they lived with the paternal grandmother, Hanina Elkabetz Lehe Isha], 7 Days [Shiva], Gett – The Trial of Viviane Amsalem). The trilogy revolves (d. 1985). Originally from Mogador – the family is from the villages of Tamanar and Illigh – around the life of Amsalem, a Moroccan‫־‬Israeli woman confronting the institutes of the Eli’s father had died at a young age, while he himself was groomed for Yeshiva studies. Moroccan‫־‬Jewish family, religious marriage and male authority alone, and whose stance Mogador native Miriam, the daughter of a wholesale trader family of Taroudant, took a inside and vis‫־‬à‫־‬vis tradition compels her to inscribe the question of her psychological and more practical approach. While Eli worked first as a postman and later in supervisory roles political liberty into the world. Tempting as it may be to turn her into a Mizrahi feminist in the Israel Postal Authority, Miriam studied haircutting at a Ministry of Labor course icon – whether by circumventing cinema’s inherent mimeticism or refusing to accept the for new immigrants at Be’er Sheva, opening up a salon at home. Ronit was the eldest fact that she is a fictional figure – Viviane does not yield lightly to political representation, of four children: she, Yechiel and Shlomi were born in Be’er Sheva, while Asi was born but in fact exposes the act of self‫־‬representation as a meaningful ‘failure.’ In this Important after the family’s move to Kiryat Yam. In 1975, the family moved to the ‘Little Morocco’ body of work, Elkabetz did not only portray a figure never before seen or written, but neighborhood, where Miriam’s brothers and sisters – Nissim, Hayim, Meir, David, Jacques, also delineated new ways of grappling with the question of the cultural representation Maurice, Itamar, Charlie and Sylvia, some of whom later played themselves in To Take a of Mizrahi femininity. When To Take a Wife debuted, Ronit said: Wife – lived. Eli’s and Miriam’s supposedly opposed life‫־‬trajectories echoed through Shlomi 47 In Her Image Yigal Shalom Nizri and Ronit’s collaborative work. Thus, while ancestor and renowned poet Rabbi Shlomo time.[30] With Its pronounced use of Moroccan Arabic, Shiva became a box office hit, Ha‫־‬Levi Alkabetz, a kabbalist of the second generation after the Spanish expulsion and drawing older Moroccan‫־‬Israeli women who arrived in the movie houses of the Mizrahi the author of famous traditional Jewish poem (piyut) Lecha Dodi, was a venerated figure periphery, for the first time, accompanied by their grandchildren. Elkabetz continued her in the Elkabetz household, the young Ronit’s entire contemplative world was occupied by collaboration with Keren Yedaya in Jaffa (2009), playing Osnat, the wife of Jewish body painting and fashion, as she dreamt of designing clothes. shop owner Reuven Wolf living in the mixed Jaffa neighborhood of Ajami. The film sought to resemble those Egyptian and Indian melodramas known to the Israeli movie‫־‬going The first decade of the new millennium brought another high point in Elkabetz’s artistic public through the mediation of the 1970s films of Iraqi–Israeli cineaste George Obadia. biography with her role as Zion, the embodiment of the place‫־‬time‫־‬concept‫־‬nation in two In March 2008, Elkabetz made her French magazine debut on the cover of Le Point in a films of the same title (2008) by Moroccan‫־‬Israeli artist Yosef Joseph Yaakov Dadoune shot volume dedicated Israel’s 60th jubilee. in 2002–2007 in France, Ofakim, Jerusalem, the Judean mountains and the Louvre Museum Department of Near Eastern Antiquities. In 2006, Elkabetz played Eliah Ben‫־‬David in the first In January 2009, Eran Merav’s debut, Zion and his Brother (Zion Ve Ahiv, distributed in Israel season of Rani Blair and Anat Asulin’s television series Parashat Ha-shavua. That same year only in 2011) was screened at the Sundance Film Festival. Elkabetz played Ilana, a divorcee she also starred in the play Crumbs, a family drama following Carmela (Elkabetz) and Frida raising two sons alone in a working‫־‬class suburb of Haifa who dreams of moving to town (Idit Teperson), two working class sisters and neighbors who have grown apart following a with her boyfriend (Tzahi Grad). Elkabetz and Grad played a married couple again in The [28] Her starring role as Dina in Eran Kolirin’s The Band’s Flood (2011, Guy Nattiv),[31] shot in the spring of 2009.[32] Later that year, Elkabetz wrote an Visit (Bikur Ha-Tizmoret, 2007), garnered her a third Ophir Prize: a Mizrahi owner of a diner epilogue to the Hebrew translation of acting coach Ivanna Chubbuck’s The Power of the in the fictional peripheral town of Beit Hatikvah who inadvertently becomes the host of a Actor, published in 2009, expanding on her own craft: betrayal, produced at Habima Theater. small Egyptian orchestra headed by conductor Taoufiq (Sasson Gabai). The orchestra, which was supposed to play in Petach Tikva, has arrived In the similar‫־‬sounding town by mistake. I think great actors are a kind of medium, an instrument. They are a conduit through The films’ screenplay was inspired by an episode in Egyptian playwright ‘Ali Salem’s Trip to which knowledge passes […] actors are not ‘ordinary’ people, they have the power Israel (1994), invoking an indefinite cultural space shared by Israel and its immediate neighbor, to touch depths others will not achieve, they are skillful in the art of fusing the Egypt. In her trips to Israel of early 2006, Elkabetz had lived on Rabbi Hanninah Street in Jaffa: conscious and unconscious, thought and intuition, memory and movement; all into one electrifying and clear emotional motion. An actor, as opposed to a non‫־‬actor, I wanted to really get to know this possibility of Jewish‫־‬Arab coexistence,” she is supposed to know the arduous journey into themselves to find the many hidden said when The Band’s Visit came out, “I have a lot of respect and love for the Arab aspects existing in them.[33] essence which is an integral part of our larger culture […] For years the entire state came to a standstill on Fridays when Channel One would screen ‘the Arab movie.’ In September 2009, “glamorous Israeli actress” Elkabetz was profiled in French daily Libération, It is an experience I remember well. The language, the scents, the music, the food; solidifying her new status In France.[34] Simultaneously, two films she starred in made their it’s all part of us.[29] debut. The first, The Girl on the Train (2009) by veteran French director André Téchiné, was based on Jean‫־‬Améry Bassette’s 2005 play RER, focusing on the real story of Marie‫־‬Léonie 48 The filming of 7 Days (Shiva), the second film in the Viviane Amsalem trilogy, began Leblanc, a young woman who had fabricated having been the victim of an anti‫־‬Semitic in November 2007. The plot takes place in 1991 in Kiryat Yam during the seven days of attack. Playing alongside Catherine Deneuve, Elkabetz portrayed a Jewish divorcee. The mourning over Maurice Ohayon, Viviane’s brother. The film opened the 2008 Cannes Film second was Ashes and Blood (2009), Fanny Ardant’s directorial debut.[35] Elkabetz played Festival International Critics’ Week and the Cinema South International Film Festival in Judith, a woman returning to Marseilles after a long stay to raise her children following Sderot a month afterwards. Prompted by a somewhat dubious qualification (“she cannot her husband’s murder. An earlier short film with Elkabetz in the lead role, L’endroit idéal be overlooked”), Ha’aretz’s film critic was moved to review Elkabetz’s work for the first (2008), directed by French actress Brigitte Sy, developed into a feature‫־‬length collaboration 49 In Her Image Yigal Shalom Nizri in Free Hands (2010), Sy’s first. Elkabetz played Barbara, a cinema director who falls for an Hebrew essay on Elkabetz’s cinematic persona was published in March 2011.[38] In May inmate serving a life sentence while filming a movie dealing with prison life. In March 2010, 2012, she was awarded the Landau Pais Prize for Cinema. “Ronit Elkabetz is today the most Jewish‫־‬Algerian‫־‬French actor and director Pascal Elbé debuted his first feature‫־‬length prominent female creator in the field of Israeli cinema. She is a well‫־‬regarded actress and film, Turk’s Head, in which Elkabetz played Sibele, the mother of a youngster of Turkish fearless director and Is a beacon of inspiration to other female creators making their way descent who becomes embroiled in a violent political event in a Marseilles banlieu. through a mostly male‫־‬dominated world […] She is synonymous with the quality cinema created In Israel which has broken through the state’s geographic boundaries,” the prize In June 2010, Elkabetz marries architect Avner Yashar in Tel Aviv; March 2012 saw the committee jury wrote. In 2012 Elkabetz dubbed the character of Bouboulina, the captain birth of their children, Omri and Shalimar. She later said being a mother was the greatest of a pirate ship sailing along the shores of North Africa in the early 19th century in Rémi achievement of her life. Nir Bergmann directed a documentary film about her, Stranger in Bezançon and Jean‫־‬Christophe Lie’s French‫־‬Belgian animation coproduction Zarafa. Paris (2010), which was aired on the documentary channel of Israeli cable television. In March 2011, Elkabetz was awarded a lifetime achievement award at the New York Sephardi Film May 2014 saw the debut of Gett - The Trial Viviane Amsalem, the third installment in Festival. In May 2011, Shlomi Elkabetz’s documentary‫־‬fictional film Edut (2011), written with Ronit and Shlomi’s Viviane Amsalem trilogy. Its plot revolves around Viviane’s long struggle Ofer Ein Gal, opened the Cinema South International Film Festival in Sderot. Comprising 22 to secure a gett – writ of divorce – from her husband Elisha, and takes place entirely within testimonies of soldiers and Palestinian subjects taken by Israeli human rights organizations the four walls of Haifa District Rabbinical Court. In September of that year, it garnered a and enacted in Hebrew by Israeli actors, it deals with the performative status of testimony Best Motion Picture Ophir Prize and a year later it was nominated to a Golden Globe. It was and speech, as well as listening and watching in the context of cinema. It opens with a six‫־‬ not just a worldwide critical success: hundreds of thousands of Israeli viewers thronged to minute monologue by Qahira, a 42‫־‬year‫־‬old Palestinian woman played by Elkabetz. In theaters to see it. In fact Viviane’s journey crossed over from pure cinematic representation, June 2011, she was awarded the Haïm Zafrani Prize for artistic achievement by the Institut featuring in actual debates had by organizations devoted to the plight of Jewish women Universitaire Elie Wiesel, Paris; in her acceptance speech, Elkabetz stated that Zafrani had refused getts by their husbands, Israeli Department of Justice personnel and the Rabbinical taught her father as a teenager in Mogador, Morocco. Courts. This drama, which pitted a woman denied a gett against the state, tradition and her husband, was also installed on the bodies and voices of Viviane Amsalem, Elisha Amsalem, In Invisible (Lo roim alaich, 2001), documentary filmmaker Michal Aviad’s first fictional [36] feature, Shim’on Amsalem, Shmuel Danino, Avraham Abutboul, Simo Abekassis, Dona Abekassis, Elkabetz played Lily, a left‫־‬wing activist inadvertently photographed by Nira Evelyne Benchouchan, Ya‘akov Benaourche, Emil Amzaleg, Haim Bouzaglo, Shmuel Azoullay – (Evegnya Dodina) during the a joint Jewish‫־‬Palestinian olive harvest action. It emerges almost the entirety of the cast is first‫־‬generation Moroccan immigrants, residents of Haifa that they have a shared trauma in having been raped by the same man twenty years prior. and its suburbs, who speak Moroccan Arabic, French and Hebrew interchangeably. With “It was important that the film raise a public debate,” she said when the film debuted, the films’ surprise ending, it seems as though Ronit Elkabetz – as writing and written‫־‬of – liberated not only her character Viviane but her own self, as a woman who placed freedom women undergo a double abuse: after the terrible thing they have undergone, of choice at the heart of her own work. they have to expose, relive and testify. Cases are often closed for lack of evidence or public interest. And some always ask, ‘why did it take her 20 years to complain, On March 26, 2014, Elkabetz received the Cross of Knight of the Legion of Honor from French why has she suddenly woken up? There is immediate public scrutiny and it is Ambassador to Israel Patrick Maisonnave. Elkabetz’s artistic choices, he said, reflect the frightening and problematic […] a woman who sees that that’s what happens ‫־‬ tight bonds between Israel and France in the realm of cinema. In 2015, Elkabetz shot a six‫־‬ [37] remains silent. That’s what Lili does. She’d rather remain silent until death. episode French television series, Trepalium (2016, Antarès Bassis and Sophie Hiet). In her last and illustrious role, she played Nadia, the French prime minister, in this speculative drama. In January 2011, Elkabetz played Penelope, the wife of Odysseus, in Botho Strauß’s Ithaca In May 2015, she was the President of the Jury at the Cannes Film Festival’s International (directed by Jean‫־‬Louis Martinelli), which debuted at Théâtre Nanterre‫־‬Amandiers: Critics’ Week. On May 31st, she received an honorary doctorate from Hebrew University for according to critics, she commanded the stage. Cineaste Tom Shoval’s groundbreaking 50 51 In Her Image Yigal Shalom Nizri her ongoing contribution to culture and society. “My art has no value if I cannot contribute Yigal S. Nizri, Department for the Study of Religion & Centre for Jewish Studies, University something to the community, to bring something, to change something. I believe naïvely, of Toronto. viscerally and daily, that cinema can change the world, the face of the world, and help us as human beings,” she said in her acceptance speech. NO TE S Outside of cinema, Elkabetz’s commitment to the plight of disenfranchised women wore different guises. If after her directorial debut in 2005 she said that “with all the talk about the patriarchal family, I am uninterested in raising a feminist flag here […] just like I am uninterested in being included in the rubric of ‘Mizrahi actress’ […] I just do not connect [01] Script written by Wachsmann in collaboration with Shmuel Hasfari and Razi Levinas. [02] Shlomo Pfefferblatt, “The Model and the Tzadik [Hadugmanit vehatzadik]”, Yedioth Ahronot, 11.04.1989. Here and in all Hebrew newspaper and magazine citations, text in Hebrew and translation mine (Y.S.N.) to that,”[39] then in 2011, following her work with Mizrahi feminist organization Sister – for [03] Nahman Ingbar, Yedioth Tel Aviv, 03.08.1990 Women in Israel, which had elected Elkabetz President, she said: [04] Ronen Tal, “In Dreams My Soul Does Not Rest [Bachalomot, haneshama sheli lo nacha]”, Ha’ir, 20.07.90 This does not come from ‘Mizrahi outcry,’ it comes from home. I grew up on Arabic language and culture, I have a love of Arabic culture. Mizrahi women go through a journey, each with her own life’s circumstances. My connection to Sister derives from my admiration to what the organizations’ women do for women in Israel. They open doors, work in the world.[40] [05] Ran Ben-Nun, “The Worst At Her Best [Hara’a bemeytava]”, Tel Aviv, April 1994 [06] Written by Aviv Grossamn, directed by Hagai Ben Yehuda [07] Oren Meyers, “The Shwarma of All Wars” [Hashawarma shel kol hamilchamot]”, Yerushalayim, 01.01.1993 [08] Michal Kapra, “Ronit Elkabetz Doesn’t Smile To Cameras [Ronit elkabetz lo mechayechet lematzlemot]”, Ma’ariv Sofshavua, 15.03.1991 In March 2016 Elkabetz covered the song L’aigle noir (“The Black Eagle”) by Jewish‫־‬French [09] Uri Klein, Ha’aretz, 29.12.1992 chanteuse Barbara (Monique Serf); on the third watch of the night of 11 Nissan, 5776 (April [10] Alona Kimhi, “A Surrealistic Comedy About A Tomato And Parsley 19, 2016), she passed away. [Comedia surelistit al agvaniya vepetrozilia]”, Tel Aviv, 18.12.1992 [11] Uri Schein, “No Need To Look For Logic Here [Lo tzarich lechapes higayon basipur haze]”, Davar, 22.12.1992 In a video interview with on the set of Crumbs at Habima, Elkabetz was asked to free [12] Edited by Dani Yitzhaki with music by Ido Amin. associate on different cultural and geographical concepts. For ‘Israel’, she said: “Israel […] [13] Ron Maiberg, “From Pinguin To Hiroshima [Mipinguin lehiroshima]”, I was just born here […] I chose to be born in Israel […] I guess I have some lesson to learn in this place.” Thus, with the internal conviction of one who has lived her life with great emotional fortitude and truth‫־‬telling, and with no bodily gestures that would relegate this utterance to the realm of Theater of the Absurd rhetoric, Elkabetz disclosed a pivotal element of her conception of liberty, which infused her cinematic characters. Choosing one’s birthplace does not mean clinging to the soothing identitarian illusion of the freedom of inventing one’s past as a way of dissenting to the dictates of biography, or of fate; on the contrary, it is an Intimate and empathetic commitment to the understanding that one’s inescapable goal, is to engage with those dictates – to choose one’s own screenplay, as it were. The Hebrew word shi’ur (“lesson” – “I guess I have some lesson to learn in this place”), which denotes both a measured period of time and a moral lesson, is indicative of the trial/ process of Ronit Elkabetz herself, an artist who had breached the circle of tragedy. 52 Hadashot, 14.05.1993 [14] Orna Kadosh, “Love Without A Face [Ahava hassrat panim]”, Ma’ariv, 09.06.1995 [15] Ben-Nun, “The Worst At Her Best” [16] Nahman Ingbar, “The Captivating Beauty Of Wonderful Ugliness [Hayofi hanifla shbakiur hanehedar]”, Yedioth Ahronot, 03.02.1995 [17] Written by Jewish-American playwright Ellen Melaver and directed by Gili Shanit. [18] Emmanuel Bar Kadma, “Artistry [Melechet machshevet]”, Yedioth Ahronot, 31.03.1995 [19] Ya’akov Bar On, Pnai Plus, 13.03.1997 [20] Shosh Maymon, “The Big Woman From The Dreams [Haisha hagdola min hachalomot]”, Lady Globes, July-August 2000 53 In Her Image [21] The adaptation debuted on November 20th, 2000 at the Théâtre de la cité international. [22] Tal Niv, “The Questionnaire [Hashe’elon]”, Ha’aretz (n.d.) 1994 [23] Sefi Handler, “Ronit In Paris, Elkbatez In Tel Aviv [Ronit vetel aviv, elkabetz betel aviv]”, Ma’ariv, 02.11.2001 [24] Written by Amit Lior, directed by Amalia Margolin [25] Screenplay written in collaboration with Sarai Ezuz [26] Chen Shalita, “Family Business [Essek mishpachti]”, Yedioth Ahronot, 04.03.2005 [27] Nirit Anderman, “Starring: The Family [Batafkid harashi: hamishpacha]”, Ha’aretz, 29.09.2008 [28] Written and directed by Ravid Davara [29] Eran Adler, “One Woman Orchestra [Tizmoret shel isha achat]”, Ma’ariv, 26.09.2007 [30] Uri Klein, “Garbo, Robina, Elkabetz [Garbo, Robina, Elkabetz]”, Ha’aretz, 29.09.2008 [31] Screenplay written in collaboration with Noa Berman Herzberg [32] Itai Stern, “Flood Of Tears [Mabul shel dmaot]”, Ma’ariv, 04.03.2009 [33] Ronit Elkabetz, “Epilogue”, in: Ivanna Chubbuck, The Power of the Actor (Tel Aviv: Asia, 2009) [in Hebrew], translation mine (Y.S.N.) [34] Christophe Ayad, “Portrait: Habitée”, Libération, 12.09.2009 [35] An adaptation of the novel by Albanian writer Ismail Kadare [36] Written in collaboration with Tal Omer [37] Zefi Sa’ar, “Playing With Fire [Mesachakot Be’esh]”, Ha’aretz, 04.11.2011 [38] Tom Shoval, “Alleged Foreigner: On Ronit Elkabetz, The Queen of Israeli Cinema [Neta zar, lichora - al ronit elkabetz, malkat hakolnoa hayisraeli]”, Mita’am 25, pp. 45-50 [in Hebrew] [39] Shalita, “Family Business” [40] Sa’ar, “Playing With Fire” 54 ‫ מירי דוידוביץ‬:‫צילום‬ Photo: Miri Davidovitz 55 56 2011 ,‫ גבריאל בהרליה‬:‫צילום‬ Photo: Gabriel Baharlia, 2011