Gett: The Trial of Viviane Ansalem

Israeli brother and sister writer-directors Shlomi and Ronit Elkabetz deliver this riveting movie about the torturous, borderline Kafkaesque procedure that one woman takes to obtain a religious divorce in Israel. Ronit also stars as Viviane, a beautiful and independent middle-aged woman who seeks to legally end a loveless marriage to her estranged and emotionally distant husband. As depicted in Gett, the legal system entirely favors the whims and rights of the male—Viviane is mostly a silent spectator at her own divorce proceedings—and so the husband is allowed to endlessly waffle and delay, outrageously dragging the case out for years. The film is minimalist but moving, A Separation meets Anatomy of a Murder, a methodical and emotional process film fused with a potent legal drama, as well as a fascinating look inside a religious bureaucracy where male supremacy is written into law. D.B.