Cahiers noirs

One day, a fortune teller predicts that filmmaker Shlomi Elkabetz’s beloved sister, actress and filmmaker Ronit Elkabetz will die young. Shlomi attempts to evade the grim prognosis during a night-time taxi ride through Paris. To no avail, it proves in this loving documentary.

Ronit is so charismatic as herself, and as her (film) roles, that viewers become captivated. In two extensive parts, named after Ronit Elkabetz’s principal character Viviane and Ronit herself, the grieving brother has created a cinematic ode to his sister – his soulmate and creative sparring partner. Simultaneously, his creative documentary records the trials and tribulations of their Jewish-Moroccan family in Israel, struggling with the traditional roles for women and themes such as religion, secularisation, emigration, and emancipation.

To this end, Elkabetz interweaves excerpts from the film trilogy they developed together (about the fate of a married woman in Haifa, loosely based on their family’s history) with recently recorded conversations with their mother, and journal-like private footage that spans decades. The charismatic Ronit is always the life and soul of everything.

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Available on Festival Scope Pro from 26 January 9:00 CET to 14 February 9:00 CET