"The Womens' Balcony" Adds Delightful Comedy to Israel Film Festivals

The Women's Balcony (Hebrew title: Yismach Chatani) a comedy from Israel, has been playing to sellout audiences at Jewish Film Festivals from Maine to California. We saw it on Sunday night at the Axelrod Performing Arts Center in Deal, New Jersey. We recommend it highly. Here is a synopsis:

Women fight for their rights in unexpected ways in this warm and funny film. When the women’s balcony in an Orthodox synagogue collapses, leaving the rabbi’s wife in a coma and the rabbi in shock, the congregation falls into crisis.

Then young rabbi David arrives and they think they’ve found a savior. But when he starts pushing fundamentalist ways – suggesting the women’s immodesty might have caused the accident – a rift emerges between the sexes!

This intimate portrait of a community trying to maintain its traditions while resisting extremism, set to a lively soundtrack amid the evocative back alleys of old Jerusalem, is sure to leave you smiling.

The film, in Hebrew with English subtitles, was made in the Bukharian quarter (Shechunat Habucharim in Hebrew) a neighborhood in the center of Jerusalem. 

This trailer will give you a taste of the film, but we urge you to find it and see it for a delicious evening of  Jewish humor at its best. It's playing now at the Lincoln Center Cinema in New York City and other selected theaters. Be sure to watch for it at a theater or at a Jewish/Israel Film Festival near you.

Enjoy!

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