Page - 117 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 05/01

Geula reframes religion: rules alone are inadequate, and faith is observed as a personal struggle and experience. Similarly, no warmth of a community comforts Menachem. There is no comfort from the outside world to which he belonged in the past. In that respect Geula is not a counter-narrative to films such as Kadosh, as it portrays not the struggle of an individual with or within a comforting community, but a person who must find within himself the means to re-establish broken links with others. Madmony and Yacov depict the progress of the struggle through the pace of the film. That pacing is achieved through the movement of the camera, the framing, music, montage and the creation of a specific space-time relationship. The space is used to communicate several aspects of the narrative. First, the space is a physical space where the characters live and move (limited to few streets, shops, flats, a hospital and a concert hall), with each of these physical spaces reflecting a different reality and mood. Second, through space the film expresses the burden and the struggle of the main character (narrowed space, characters continuously framed by the doors, closed windows and blinds). Fi- nally, the space connects memory with the present, two realities, the physical and the transcendent. Oppressive space is created primarily by narrow framing. However, it is not religion that is oppressive here, but the character’s inability to reconcile himself with his past. In rethinking and re-experiencing his faith, he is faced with many outside boundaries (such as the rules that are important to his neighbours or to the rabbi matchmaker). His rethinking religion is rethinking isolation, nar- row-mindedness, self-righteousness and the inability to face his mistakes and wrong-doings; blindly following the rules turns out not to be enough.27 Howev- er, the effect of the image is not solely of oppression, as a flickering warm light follows Menachem throughout the film, emanating both from him and from Geula, suggesting a light that comes from within and acting as a sign of hope. Moreover, while the door frames can indicate constriction, they also can offer a sense of release, for in many scenes the doors they contain are open, suggest- ing a way out (from isolation) is possible. RE-CREATING SPACE The changing movement of the camera through the immediate physical spaces that Menachem inhabits simulates his embodied psychospiritual space, from which his inner struggle is manifested externally. The camera is withdrawn, hand-held and fragmented, and the light is dark in the initial scenes inside Men- achem’s home. Although the home is traditionally associated with stability and 27 Menachem remains “rebellious” in both worlds, as one of his friends observes. See Geula (Joseph Madmony / Boaz Yehonatan Yacov, IL 2018), 00:37:50. Constructing Space, Changing Reality of Israel through Film | 117www.jrfm.eu 2019, 5/1