Brides of Allah
Israel, 2008, 75 min, Arabic and Hebrew, English and Hebrew subtitles
The director Natalie Assouline chronicles the lives of women who are serving time in prison for complicity in terrorist attacks in Israel. The intimate portrait, filmed over the course of two years, tries to uncover the motivations behind the actions of these women.
This film is structured as a journey into an unknown world. At every turn we receive new information and experience new emotions that make it impossible to remain coherent. We find ourselves liking these women, but we feel discomfort in the fact that we do. We want to pity them, but they are too strong for our pity. We get close to them, and a moment later we are thrown clear, horrified by their actions and their lack of remorse - fascinated at the same time… There is no black or white in this film, only painful