''Daughters, Daughters'' () is a 1973 Israeli film directed by Moshé Mizrahi, who also co-wrote the screenplay. It was entered into the 1974 Cannes Film Festival.

Plot

Shabtai Alfandari ( Shaike Ophir) is a pure

Sephardic Sephardic Jews, also known as Sephardi Jews or Sephardim, and rarely as Iberian Peninsular Jews, are a Jewish diaspora population associated with the historic Jewish communities of the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal) and their descendant ...

Jerusalemite, father to nine daughters, who yearns for a son who will one day say

Kaddish The Kaddish (, 'holy' or 'sanctification'), also transliterated as Qaddish, is a hymn praising God that is recited during Jewish prayer services. The central theme of the Kaddish is the magnification and sanctification of God's name. In the lit ...

for him after his death. Alfandari dreams about the son and plays with him in his dreams. He consults with sorcerers to remove the

curse A curse (also called an imprecation, malediction, execration, malison, anathema, or commination) is any expressed wish that some form of adversity or misfortune will befall or attach to one or more persons, a place, or an object. In particular, ...

that prevents him from having a son. He arranges for his eldest daughter to marry his assistant in hopes that a male child will be born into the family, but another daughter is born instead.

Cast

* Shaike Ophir - Sabbatai Alfandari * Zaharira Harifai - Bianca Alfandari * Joseph Shiloach - Joseph Omri * Michal Bat-Adam - Esther Alfandari * Gideon Singer - Dr. Mazor * Avner Hizkiyahu - Casarola * Naomi Blumenthal - Naomi Greenbaum * David Baruch

Screening

The film premiered a week before the outbreak of the

Yom Kippur War The Yom Kippur War, also known as the Ramadan War, the October War, the 1973 Arab–Israeli War, or the Fourth Arab–Israeli War, was fought from 6 to 25 October 1973 between Israel and a coalition of Arab world, Arab states led by Egypt and S ...

, during which it achieved significant success, attracting approximately 50,000 viewers in its first week. However, the war's onset led to a sharp decline in audience numbers. In August 1974, the film returned to theaters but failed to replicate its initial success. In the spring of 1974, the film competed for the

Palme d'Or The (; ) is the highest prize awarded to the director of the Best Feature Film of the Official Competition at the Cannes Film Festival. It was introduced in 1955 by the festival's organizing committee. Previously, from 1939 to 1954, the festiv ...

at the

Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Film Festival (; ), until 2003 called the International Film Festival ('), is the most prestigious film festival in the world. Held in Cannes, France, it previews new films of all genres, including documentaries, from all around ...

, where audiences voted it the festival's most popular film.

References

External links

* 1973 films 1973 drama films Israeli drama films 1970s Hebrew-language films Films directed by Moshé Mizrahi Films produced by Menahem Golan {{1970s-drama-film-stub