DVD Review: Mountain

Mountain is a compelling film about a young Orthodox Jewish woman who lives with her husband and children at the edge of the Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives, and who becomes curious about the prostitutes who work there at night. It stars Shani Klein as Zvia, and Avshalom Polak as Reuven, her husband.

The film opens with Zvia walking through the cemetery and helping a couple find a certain section (in a rather humorous moment). She then goes home to her children, and we see that her home is actually a part of the cemetery. Her life there seems a quiet, simple and peaceful existence, and we see her daily routine. Static shots allow the characters to command our focus, and also help emphasize the quiet, unchanging atmosphere.

But we also quickly get a sense that Zvia needs something more, yearns for more contact. We see that when she tries unsuccessfully to joke with women who are there for a funeral, and then when she tries to relate the story to her husband that night. We see it also in a shot of her staring out through the window alone the next day. When her husband wants to take an opportunity to work a couple of nights a week, the exact opposite of what it seems she needs, Zvia goes up the hill of the cemetery to calm herself with a cigarette and spies a couple having sex among the stones. Then, lonely and intrigued and unsatisfied herself, she begins going deliberately to watch people coupling among the graves. Even a frightening encounter with some men does not dissuade her.

The film does a good job of contrasting the daytime existence of the woman and the place with the nighttime existence. In the day, her companion is Abed, a man who works at the cemetery. In one of their conversations, he tells her that he married young and has seven children, but admits there is no love between him and his wife. “It just didn’t happen,” he says somewhat matter-of-factly. And we wonder just how Zvia feels about her husband, and perhaps she wonders how her husband feels about her. Interestingly, in bed that night, she tells her husband, “He said he has seven kids and that he loves his wife very much even though it was an arranged marriage.” It’s like she is beginning to create her own reality.

Yet there is also a strange innocence about her, as in one moment when she stoops to poke at a used condom with her finger, as a child might do. Interestingly, as she begins to reach out to the prostitutes, she also begins reaching out to her husband more. And there are some tender moments between them. But there is also a tension. Both Shani Klein and Avshalom Polak deliver excellent performances. This is a film that I think will stay with me for a long time.

Mountain was directed by Yaelle Kayam, and was released on DVD on January 31, 2017 through First Run Features. The film is presented in Hebrew, with English subtitles. The DVD contains no special features.