Wedding Night

Israel 2023, 60 min, Hebrew, English subtitles

In the ultra-Orthodox community men are educated not to look at women or think about them and a girl practices modesty in clothing, actions and thoughts. Marriage requires complete strangers to suddenly encounter their partner for the first time in an intimate situation with only rudimentary information. According to Jewish law, they are required at that first intimate encounter to consummate the marriage. The forbidden becomes permitted, the impure pure, and modesty turns into full exposure. What was considered sinful transforms to the Holy of Holies.
The film draws a portrait of a society and a place: women and men speak bravely about their hidden feelings during matchmaking, the engagement period, the guidance of brides and grooms, the canopy, the special “Yihud” room, until the morning after marriage.

Against all Odds Beyond the Screen Competition Israeli Online Screening