'The Other Widow': A complex story of two women

• Published date: 11 March 2024
• Author: HANNAH BROWN
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

The movie mixes serious drama with moments of black comedy as it tells the story of Ella (Dana Ivgy, one of the most celebrated actresses in Israel cinema), who works as a costume designer for a theater, and who has been in a long-running affair with a married playwright (Itamar Rotschild)

When the film opens, the two are collaborating on a revised production of the classic ancient Greek tale of betrayal and jealousy, Medea. But early in the film, after Assaf dies suddenly, she has to cope with the fact that although he was a huge part of her life, she cannot mourn him publicly. She insists on attending the shiva mourning period at his home and develops a weird fascination with his coldly perfect widow, Natasha (Ania Bukstein), a classical musician.

Ella is under pressure to finish her work so that the show can go on, which everyone agrees Assaf would have wanted, but she finds herself falling apart. A key part of the plot is how she becomes obsessed with an elaborate costume she has designed, a black dress covered with tubes meant to collect the tragic heroine's tears, but which keeps malfunctioning. The dress is a haunting image, symbolizing Ella's connection to the deep sorrow she feels but is not allowed to express.

It's appropriate that the movie opened just in time for International Women's Day, although of course Rypp never imagined it would be released during wartime. But she thinks that audiences will appreciate the film and may find it especially relevant now.

"The movie doesn't deal with politics. It talks about something very human. I hope it gives people something that is a kind of escapism, or light, something with a little humor, that lets people reconnect with their own lives," said Rypp, who co-wrote the screenplay with Anat Gafni.

While the film is not autobiographical, it was inspired by an experience the director had. "I had a forbidden love, I was 24 and I wrote a whole story about us and it was actually very boring. And then I decided to kill him off [in the story] and I realized that was more interesting. It became about, how does a mistress deal with her grief when her lover dies? And in the movie, he dies right in the beginning, he's not present at all, and it became a story about two women."

Audience response to the film

THE OTHER Widow has been shown at festivals around the world and has elicited very emotional responses from audiences. "A lot of women come to me saying it's their story, or the story of someone they know. It's...