BUY TICKETS Wednesday, 3 December – 6.00pm – The Australian Cinémathèque at GOMA
BUY TICKETS Saturday, 13 December – 12.00pm – Palace Barracks Cinemas
“A chamber piece of all-consuming intensity, To Take a Wife features yet another brilliant performance by powerhouse actress Ronit Elkabetz … a razor-sharp look at a marriage not so much frayed as eviscerated.” – Variety
Viviane and Eliyahu have been married for 20 years, and unhappy for all of them. Locked together by the patriarchal dictates of their Orthodox Jewish religion, they’re bound in a brutal cycle of emotional manipulation and mind games, driven by the ill-tempered, insecure Eliyahu. When an ex-lover arrives on the scene, the fault lines running through their marriage are ready to explode.
Brother-and-sister team Ronit and Shlomi Elkabetz made a startling directorial debut in 2004 with the critically acclaimed To Take a Wife, its many festival honours including the Audience Award at Venice Film Festival.
The first part of a monumental, decade-long trilogy of films that culminates in Gett, The Trial of Viviane Amsalem (also screening at this year’s BAPFF), this work is an unflinching and powerful portrayal of domestic psychological brutality, and a reflection on the overwhelming price of honour.
