Page - 121 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 05/01

with his own mistakes and by overcoming pride, the character of Menachem is able to find himself and his relationship with others and consequently with God, who was hidden, as the film narrates, in the lost-and-found lollipop of his daughter Geula (figs. 7 and 8). Small details containing innocence in an otherwise oppressed physical space change the scenery: the character can smile again as the light filters into the space through half-closed windows towards which both father and daughter are turned for the first time (fig. 9). CONCLUSION: SPACE AND SPACES, REFRAMING REALITY The cinematic space of Israeli films, discussed here through the works of Amos Gitai, Joseph Madmony and Boaz Yehonatan Yacov, includes a number of di- verse spaces and communities. By creating the cinematic space with narratives stripped of clichés, the filmmakers create a new sense of the real and of realism, rupturing the cultural and socio-political contexts in which they were made. The films employ geographical, physical and embodied spaces to communicate the complexity of the multiple microcosmic realities within the wider socio-political reality of Israel. In Gitai’s case, these micro-cosmic realities are represented as a mosaic via capsulated narrative segments that bring out the voices of diverse individuals and communities that exist within the land. In the case of Madmony and Yacov, the focus lies on one specific microcosm, that of a man within an Orthodox community, and on his struggle with faith that gradually enables him to mend his bonds with his daughter, friends and the outside world. Geula was shot in a small number of places, and alternative spaces emerge to create layers of realities: that of the outside world, the reality of the religious community, and the inner reality of the character (past and present). In Geula the charac- ters dominate the space, and the physical space corelates with the characters. Unlike in Kadosh and A Place in Heaven, this space is neither highly austere nor visually eclectic, but serves to communicate layers of reality with attention to small details that give further meaning to the space and the narrative. The film creates a composition of space and time through which religion and faith, isola- tion and community, are confronted and re-examined. By contrast, Gitai’s film is bound to the geography of the land, which frames the stories of Israeli-Palestinian realities. In capturing fragments of the geo- graphical space that exists beyond the frame (the land), the camera depicts specific physical spaces, and the inner embodied realities of characters tied to those spaces are made manifest. As Gitai reminds us, just as different commu- Best Actor Award. See News Section on Karloy Vary International Film Festival 2018, http://www.kviff. com/en/news/ [accessed 07.08.2018]. Constructing Space, Changing Reality of Israel through Film | 121www.jrfm.eu 2019, 5/1