Page - 110 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 05/01

state of Israel” to those who are “nationalists, and even pacifists”, as well as those tied to the notion of land.12 Gitai’s exploration of life in Mea Shearim is an exploration of the community’s relation to space. Gitai creates an “eclectic visual environment”13 to show that such a community has no interest in the physical space they inhabit, with the scriptures instead determining the lives of everyone involved in Mea Shearim. To describe the inner struggle and exile of the female leads within the community “he [Gitai] moves objects as well as the camera, and two geometries are created, where one is used to describe the other”.14 The inner exile thus is reflected in a physical space that becomes both austere and eclectic. The notion of exile remains dominant in Gitai’s later work. In Ana Arabia (Amos Gitai, IL/FR 2013) the “exile” of the mixed community of Arabs and Jews is expressed through the cinematic space. Gitai shot this film in a single take to reflect the “unbroken links” between the two peoples.15 He juxtaposes the political reality with the reality of the community, and through the “unbroken space – time”16 he offers an alternative reality as the solution to the exclusion that surrounds it. Religion in Ana Arabia seems to be related only to ethnic/national identity, a divisive point. However, religion is present through the space – that is the space of a garden tended by one of the characters that serves as a metaphor for God’s garden, for the land that belongs to no one, only to God, and that is to be shared between Israelis and Palestinians. In that respect Ana Arabia serves as a reference for a different kind of identity: it con- fronts the identitarian politics of power with the identity of a community that thrives in togetherness in the heart of Israel. Gitai erases borders by not making cuts, by not using montage.17 Both Amos Gitai and Joseph Madmony approach religious communities as complex microcosms within contemporary Israel. Both directors see religion as a burning issue for Israel. Madmony identifies two prevailing problems when it comes to religion: first, that it can be extreme (in the service of ultra-national- ism), and second, that it is bound to the institution, which complicates it.18 For Gitai, the problem seems to be institutional and ideological (which often over- lap) and although he “casts no judgement on religious communities … he does 12 Amos Gitai, Interview by Marie-Jose Sanselme: Kadosh (Amos Gitai, IL/FR, 1999) British DVD Release, Planet, 2002. 13 Amos Gitai, Interview by Marie-Jose Sanselme: Kadosh (Amos Gitai, IL/FR, 1999) British DVD Release, Planet, 2002. 14 Amos Gitai, Interview by Marie-Jose Sanselme: Kadosh (Amos Gitai, IL/FR, 1999) British DVD Release, Planet, 2002. 15 Radovic 2017, 70–84. 16 Radovic 2017, 70–84. 17 For my consideration of montage and the implications of the absence of cutting in Gitai’s Ana Arabia (Amos Gitai, IL/FR, 2013), see Radovic 2017, 70–83. 18 Joseph Madmony, Personal Interview, 30.07.2018. 110 | Milja Radovic www.jrfm.eu 2019, 5/1