Guest Post by Shlomit Nehama
My debut screenplay centers on the aftermath of an accident at a synagogue. The women’s balcony collapses, leaving the synagogue in shambles. When repairs are made and the synagogue re-opens, the women who worship at the synagogue are horrified to discover that a new, ultra-conservative rabbi has made the decision to remove the balcony entirely.
The community in “The Women’s Balcony” is like the community where I grew up in Jerusalem. It was a big and vibrant Bukharian neighborhood. Many different groups resided there, and there was a lovely mix of people, all of whom got along. I remember being a child and playing with children from ultra-Orthodox families. It all seemed very natural.
My family left Jerusalem when I was 12 years old, although my extended family remained. While visiting them over the years, I witnessed the transition to Orthodox extremism. As more and more ultra-Orthodox people moved in, many of the beautiful old houses were demolished to make way for apartment buildings. The neighborhood became unrecognizable.
The community I described in the film is now a minority who are fighting to keep their traditional way of life in the face of a very extreme religious society. While writing the script I visited the neighborhood again and realized I was commemorating a way of life that is almost gone. I wanted the film to be shot where I grew up but it was impossible — the ultra-Orthodox community there would not permit it.
Through the writing of the script I could deal with the conflict that lives inside of me. I left the religious community when I was 18 years old and started a new secular life without much looking back. For years, I didn’t care about it, but always felt like perhaps I was a failure.
My family is very warm and close. We will do anything for each other, but we don’t openly discuss much. When I left the religious life, my parents were very disappointed with me. I believe the hardest thing for any child is to feel like you disappointed your parents. And even if they forgot about it long ago, I still had the urge to come clean. I discovered that I could explain myself to my family through the film. But when I first started writing the script I was not thinking of explaining myself. I was not even thinking about saying something about the community. I was mainly busy building a story that would be interesting, funny, and moving. It was only in the last stages of writing that I started to understand I had written my own story and that it has meaning. It was very therapeutic for me. Writing, for me, is a wonderful process in which not everything is crystal clear along the way.
In writing the film, I realized I had no problem with Judaism — on the contrary, I adore my religion. My problem is with the zealots who frighten and deter in the name of religion.
My family was very enthusiastic about “The Women’s Balcony.” I did a private screening for them. My father couldn’t sit still. He was excited like a child. He told me everything looked so familiar and that I turned his reality into a film. Even the religious community accepted the film fondly. I think what they liked very much was the authenticity. Like my father, they also saw themselves in the film.
Personally, I find the concept of a women’s balcony very charming. The women looking at the men from above. Like in the gallery of a very respected theater. Like the word of Rabbi David, I think that the Jewish religion elevates women, but in a world run by men for many ages this was also used to minimize and push women aside.
Only through my writing did I discover that I am quite a feminist, just in the same way my female characters discovered their own strength in the film. I don’t think these women even understand or know the term feminism, but when they felt for the first time in their life that they needed to fight for their place, they simply did it. My greatest hope is that this film gives voice to other communities, both Jewish and non-Jewish, facing similar issues.
“The Women’s Balcony” is in theaters now.
Shlomit Nehama grew up in Jerusalem, in a religious family. She worked for many years on Israeli TV, mainly in children’s programs and animation series. ”The Women’s Balcony” is her first feature film, inspired by the story of her family and their neighborhood.
