''Atalia'' () is a 1984

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

i drama film directed by Akiva Tevet. It was adapted from a story by

Yitzhak Ben Ner Yitzhak Ben Ner (, also transliterated Itzhak Ben-Ner; born July 3, 1937) is an Israeli writer, screenwriter, journalist, and film critic. He has also hosted and edited radio and TV programs. Biography Ben Ner was born in 1937 in Kfar Yehoshua, ...

and mostly shot on location at Kibbutz Yakum.

Plot

Atalia (

Michal Bat-Adam Michal Bat-Adam (; born March 2, 1945) is an Israel, Israeli film director, producer, screenwriter, actress, and musician. Her films deal with complex and conflicted relationships, especially relationships within families. She also explores the l ...

) is a 40-year-old widow who lost her husband in the

Six-Day War The Six-Day War, also known as the June War, 1967 Arab–Israeli War or Third Arab–Israeli War, was fought between Israel and a coalition of Arab world, Arab states, primarily United Arab Republic, Egypt, Syria, and Jordan from 5 to 10June ...

and lives on a

kibbutz A kibbutz ( / , ; : kibbutzim / ) is an intentional community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The first kibbutz, established in 1910, was Degania Alef, Degania. Today, farming has been partly supplanted by other economi ...

with her adolescent daughter (Gail Ben-Ner). Lonely and feeling outcast, she enters into a forbidden affair with her daughter's classmate, Matti

Yiftach Katzur Yiftach Katzur (, sometimes spelled Yftach Katzur), also known in Germany as Jesse Katzur) is an Israeli actor, director, producer, and business strategist, born on July 17, 1958, in Israel. He gained international fame for his role as Benji (Ben ...

, an idealistic 19-year-old who had been rejected by the army. Atalia is independent-minded and non-conformist, so when her affair becomes known, the kibbutz leaders have the excuse they need to ostracize her. The slow degeneration of the once-idealistic kibbutz into a

puritan The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to rid the Church of England of what they considered to be Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should b ...

ical society, the strait-jacket of its conservative view of masculinity, and the conformity of her daughter all provide a backdrop to Atalia's problems.

Cast

as Atalia *

as Matti * * * *Gail Ben-Ner as Netta * *Tamar Amiran

Significance of the name

The original

Athaliah Athaliah ( ''Gotholía''; ) was the daughter of King Ahab and Queen Jezebel of Israel; she was queen consort of kingdom of Judah, Judah as the wife of Jehoram of Judah, King Jehoram, a descendant of King David, and was later queen regnant c. 84 ...

was a Biblical queen of

Judea Judea or Judaea (; ; , ; ) is a mountainous region of the Levant. Traditionally dominated by the city of Jerusalem, it is now part of Palestine and Israel. The name's usage is historic, having been used in antiquity and still into the pres ...

, whom the

Bible The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally writt ...

presents as a tyrannical usurper and idolater. Used, though not commonly, as a female first name in Israel, Atalia is a

secularist Secularism is the principle of seeking to conduct human affairs based on naturalistic considerations, uninvolved with religion. It is most commonly thought of as the separation of religion from civil affairs and the state and may be broadened ...

name associated with the sector of Israeli society which tends to rebel against old traditions and conventions and seek new ways. This meaning is obvious to Israeli audiences, and clearly has some relevance to the film's themes.

Critical reception

The film received poor reviews and poor attendance at the box office (only 80,000 tickets were sold).Judd Ne'eman, "Israeli Cinema," in Oliver Leaman, ed., ''Companion Encyclopedia of Middle Eastern and North African Film'' (Routledge, 2001), p. 243.

References

External links

*
Hebrew account and Bat-Adam's photo in the Israeli Film Fund website
1984 films 1980s Hebrew-language films Films about the kibbutz Films based on short fiction 1980s coming-of-age drama films Israeli coming-of-age drama films 1984 drama films {{1980s-drama-film-stub