Slopes - A New Israeli Drama

Director: Yechezkel Lazarov. Play: Amnon Levy. In Mea Shearim, a group of women rises up and decides to rebel against the community's leadership in order to save one of their own from an unhappy, violent marriage. They use the one ancient and effective weapon available to them: withholding themselves from their husbands. They refuse to go to the mikveh and launch a campaign of abstaining from marital relations until their friend is freed from the shackles of her marriage. "The Rebels" is a moving, funny drama by Amnon Levy, who brings a women's struggle for equality to the most unexpected place. The women of the ultra-Orthodox neighborhood decide that the value of helping a woman in distress outweighs even the commandment to be fruitful and multiply. They courageously confront the men, suffer boycotts and persecution, and nevertheless continue their struggle despite the heavy price. Levy, who wrote "Sheindele" — one of the great successes of Israeli theater — returns to the ultra-Orthodox woman of Mea Shearim and documents her struggle for independence. Levy drew inspiration for the play from a similar campaign of marital abstinence that recently took place in Satmar, New York, demanding the release of an agunah (a woman chained to her marriage). That campaign succeeded there and stunned the ultra-Orthodox world. Featuring: Shlomo Bar-Aba, Rona-Lee Shimon, Henry David, Tali Sharon, Nati Kluger, Noa Rabinovitz, Meir Toledano, Gil Weiss.