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''Late Marriage'' ( he, חתונה מאוחרת, ''Hatuna Meuheret'') is a 2001 Israeli film directed by
Dover Kosashvili Dover Kosashvili ( he, דובר קוסאשווילי, ka, დოვერ ქოსაშვილი; born 8 December 1966) is an Israeli film director and screenwriter of Georgian Jews, Georgian-Jewish descent. He has directed five films sinc ...
. The film centers on Zaza (
Lior Ashkenazi Lior Ashkenazi ( he, ליאור אשכנזי; born 28 December 1968) is an Israeli actor, voice actor, comedian and television presenter. Biography Lior Ashkenazi was born in Ramat Gan, Israel, and grew up in the Neveh Yehoshua neighborhood. His ...
, in his breakthrough role), the 31-year-old child of tradition-minded Georgian Jewish immigrants who are anxiously trying to arrange a marriage for him. Unbeknownst to them, he is secretly dating a 34-year-old divorcée, Judith (
Ronit Elkabetz Ronit Elkabetz ( he, רונית אלקבץ; 27 November 1964 – 19 April 2016) was an Israeli actress, screenwriter and film director. She worked in both Israeli and French cinema. She won three Ophir Awards and received a total of seven nomin ...
). When his parents discover the relationship and violently intervene, Zaza must choose between his family traditions and his love. Most of the main characters are Georgian-Israeli and the dialogue is partly in the Judaeo-Georgian language and partly in Hebrew. The film was positively reviewed and was Israel's submission for Best Foreign Language Film at the 74th Academy Awards.


Plot

Zaza is a 31-year-old Georgian-Israeli PhD student at
Tel Aviv University Tel Aviv University (TAU) ( he, אוּנִיבֶרְסִיטַת תֵּל אָבִיב, ''Universitat Tel Aviv'') is a public research university in Tel Aviv, Israel. With over 30,000 students, it is the largest university in the country. Locate ...
whose family is trying to arrange a marriage for him within the Georgian community. Zaza and his parents, Yasha and Lili, visit the home of a possible match, Ilana, who is 17 and still in high school. No decision is made, and it is mentioned that he has already seen about a hundred prospective brides. After dropping his parents off at their apartment building, Zaza drives to a pay phone and calls his girlfriend Judith, a 34-year-old Moroccan-Israeli divorcée he is dating without his parents' knowledge. After Judith's daughter Madona has gone to bed (Judith is unsuccessfully attempting to conceal the relationship from her), Zaza goes to her apartment and they have sex, in an explicit, naturalistic sequence. Meanwhile, Zaza's parents find that they have left their house key in Zaza's car and spend the night at the home of their relatives Simon and Margalit. When Zaza doesn't answer repeated phone calls during the night, Yasha concludes that he is sleeping at a lover's house. Judith is unacceptable to Zaza's parents because she is divorced, has a child, and is older than Zaza. A number of Zaza's relatives stake out her apartment building, planning to confront the couple and frighten Judith into leaving Zaza. The next time Zaza visits Judith, his relatives barge into her apartment and attempt to break up the relationship through polite argument, humiliation, and threats of violence, as Madona (whom Judith has finally introduced to Zaza) watches, frightened. Simon takes down a decorative sword from Judith's wall and holds it to her throat. Zaza and Judith say little, and eventually Zaza unconvincingly tells Judith their relationship is over and leaves with his family. He returns shortly and attempts to resume the evening where it left off, but Judith quietly tells him that she doesn't want to see him again. Back at his apartment, Zaza has a further confrontation with his parents. Some time later Zaza's parents return to Judith's apartment building. When Judith comes home, Lili approaches her and gives Madona a teddy bear as a peace offering, while Yasha stays in the car. In the apartment, Lili asks Judith if she has seen Zaza. Judith initially says she hasn't, but soon tearfully admits that Zaza has been calling her and begging her to marry him. Judith has refused because Zaza's reaction when his family invaded her apartment made her realize that "he loves you more than me," and she has decided the relationship is bad for all concerned. Back in the car, Yasha asks Lili if she will accept Judith as a wife for Zaza. Lili, now more sympathetic toward Judith, tells him that they should wait and see if Zaza gets over her. The next scene opens with Zaza and Yasha standing next to each other at urinals in a public restroom. It becomes clear that they are at Zaza's wedding reception, and Zaza is drunk. Zaza returns to the reception hall and gives a long, awkward, repetitive speech, while his wife, Lea, stands uncomfortably by his side. Eventually he tells the guests that he "has a woman on the side more beautiful than my wife" and drags Simon onstage to ask him to confirm this. Simon brings Zaza's mother onstage as Zaza's other woman, relieving the tension, and Zaza and Lili embrace. The film ends with Zaza and his bride dancing with the rest of his family.


Cast

*
Lior Ashkenazi Lior Ashkenazi ( he, ליאור אשכנזי; born 28 December 1968) is an Israeli actor, voice actor, comedian and television presenter. Biography Lior Ashkenazi was born in Ramat Gan, Israel, and grew up in the Neveh Yehoshua neighborhood. His ...
as Zaza *
Ronit Elkabetz Ronit Elkabetz ( he, רונית אלקבץ; 27 November 1964 – 19 April 2016) was an Israeli actress, screenwriter and film director. She worked in both Israeli and French cinema. She won three Ophir Awards and received a total of seven nomin ...
as Judith *
Moni Moshonov Shlomo "Moni" Moshonov ( he, שלמה "מוני" מושונוב; born 18 August 1951) is an Israeli actor, comedian, and theater director. Early and personal life Moshonov was born in Ramla, Israel, to a Sephardic Jewish family that immigrated ...
as Yasha *Lili Kosashvili as Lili * Aya Steinovitz as Ilana * Rozina Cambos as Magouly *Simon Chen as Simon *Sapir Kugman as Madona *
Dina Doron Dina Peskin, known professionally as Dina Doron and Dina Doronne, (Hebrew: דינה דורון; born 15 March 1940) is an Israeli film and stage actress. Biography Doron was born in Afula, Israel on 15 March 1940 to Zivia and Emanuel Peskin. ...
as Luba *Leonid Kanevsky as Otary *Livia Chachmon Ayaliy as Margalit *Eli Turi as Bessik *Maria Ovanov as Lali Lili Kosashvili, who plays Zaza's mother Lili, is the director's mother.


Reception

The film was screened in the
Un Certain Regard (, meaning 'a certain glance') is a section of the Cannes Film Festival's official selection. It is run at the Debussy, parallel to the competition for the . This section was introduced in 1978 by Gilles Jacob. The section presents 20 films w ...
section at the
2001 Cannes Film Festival The 54th Cannes Film Festival started on 14 May and ran until 20 May 2001. Norwegian actress and director Liv Ullmann was the Jury President. The Palme d'Or went to the Italian film ''The Son's Room'' by Nanni Moretti. The festival opened with ...
. After that screening, it premiered at the 18th Annual Israel Film Festival, where it was reviewed by John Petrakis of the ''
Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television ar ...
'', who wrote: "One of those welcome visitors, a movie that turns out to be much more than we expected". ''Late Marriage'' was positively received by critics.
Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
, which calculates a score from zero to 100 from a film's reviews, gave it a score of 82, translating to "Universal acclaim". ''Late Marriage'' placed 88th on ''
Slant Magazine ''Slant Magazine'' is an American online publication that features reviews of movies, music, TV, DVDs, theater, and video games, as well as interviews with actors, directors, and musicians. The site covers various film festivals like the New York ...
''s best films of the 2000s. Ed Gonzalez, a ''Slant'' critic, wrote, "It so boldly confronts stringent cultural traditions it's a minor miracle it never becomes glib". ''Late Marriage'' also got a positive response from critics on
Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
, where it holds a rank of 88% based on 64 reviews, with an average ranking of 7.3/10. The site's consensus is: "An observant black comedy about arranged marriages and tradition". Danny Graydon of the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
called ''Late Marriage'' " accomplished and tremendously engaging debut", while
Emanuel Levy Emanuel Levy is an American film critic and professor who has taught at Columbia University, New School for Social Research, Wellesley College, Arizona State University and UCLA Film School. Levy currently teaches in the department of cinema ...
called the film "A highlight of Israeli cinema of the past decade". He also hailed Kosashvili's feature debut as "impressive" and "extremely powerful". Edward Guthmann of the ''
San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and M. H. de Young, Michael H. de ...
'' praised the lead roles portraying
Ashkenazi Ashkenazi Jews ( ; he, יְהוּדֵי אַשְׁכְּנַז, translit=Yehudei Ashkenaz, ; yi, אַשכּנזישע ייִדן, Ashkenazishe Yidn), also known as Ashkenazic Jews or ''Ashkenazim'',, Ashkenazi Hebrew pronunciation: , singu ...
and Elkabetz groups. According to
Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...
of ''
Chicago Sun-Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the ''Chicago T ...
'', ''Late Marriage'' "is not a one-level film, and one of its most revealing moments shows the strong-minded mother expressing respect for the equally iron-willed Judith".


Awards

*Won the
Ophir Award The Ophir Awards ( he, פרס אופיר), colloquially known as the Israeli Oscars or the Israeli Academy Awards, are film awards for excellence in the Israeli film industry awarded by the Israeli Academy of Film and Television. The award, named ...
for Best Film in 2001 *The film was Israel's submission for the 74th Academy Award for Best Foreign Film (it was not nominated).


References


Bibliography

*


External links

* *{{Amg movie, 248911 Israeli comedy-drama films French romantic comedy-drama films 2000s Georgian-language films 2000s Hebrew-language films Films shot in Israel Films directed by Dover Kosashvili 2001 romantic comedy-drama films Films about immigration 2000s French films 2001 multilingual films Israeli multilingual films French multilingual films