Avanim

I just watched an Israeli film which I quite liked.

I thought one of the most interesting threads of the movie was the religious one - Michale is criticized by some of the orthodox for not covering her head, but the rabbi is understanding. Also, in a speech thanking people for helping to found a new yeshiva, only the rabbi thanks or mentions the women. Another notable scene has one of the men talking about how empty the synagogues have become while the women stand outside, listening.

The subtitles are completely bizarre. They are obviously meant to serve as closed captioning as well, as occassionally they mention laughing or sirens. Weirdly, none of the prayers are translated at all. Neither are any song lyrics in a scene with a woman singing at the kindergarden. I wonder how the subtitling was thought through and why some things were so notably excluded.

--Now that I've had a night to sleep on it, I've been pondering the signifance of the title. Stones. There are a lot of actual stones - left on the gravestone, thrown at the kindergarden teacher, the stone plaque remembering Michale's mother on the new yeshiva. But it also seems to be more than that - a people who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones kind of situation. The yeshiva guy keeps lecturing Michala on her morals and respect for not covering her head, but he's lying to the government to get more money. They talk about the youth in the neighbourhood stealing while committing fraud in the name of religion. Michala herself feels morally concerned by the fraud her father is involved with, but she's having an affair.