You Need to be Ready to Let Go of What the Eye Sees

A three-channel video and sound work, 16 min.

Created for the Israel Museum exhibition “Veiled Women of the Holy Land: New Trends in Modest Dress”

Curator: No'am Bar'am-Ben Yossef

Designer: Rona Chernika

Artistic Adviser: Ari Teperberg

 

© The Israel Museum, Jerusalem 2019

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The three actresses in this video assume the roles of a Jewish woman, a Muslim woman, and a Russian Orthodox nun, all of whom represent the world of pious women who observe rules of extreme modesty. The film’s title quotes Haya, one of the Jewish modesty women, who appeals to us not to judge them by their clothing and outward appearance.
Attempting to reveal the personal world of the modesty women is an inherently paradoxical quest. As we could neither record nor photograph them, we have chosen to present them through the intermediary of actors. The texts they speak are based upon interviews conducted between 2015 and 2018 with women from all three religions, and the repeated dressing and undressing that appear in the film – at once a documentary and an artwork – are a stylized representation of what they said.
We are grateful to all these women who shared moments from their personal lives with us, and to the Russian Orthodox sisters of the Convent of St. Mary Magdalene,
Gethsemane, Jerusalem, for their guidance.

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Director and producer: Ari Teperberg

Research and field work: Noam Bar'am Ben Yossef

Cinematography and editing: Yoav Brill

Script: Noam Bar'am-Ben Yossef, Ari Teperberg

Actors: Neta Shpigelman, Samira Saraya, Sylwia Drori

 

Lighting: Noam Huber, Uri Imerglik

Production assistant: Adam Ben Nun

Makeup: Maayan Ariav

Color: Dima Lydkhov

Arabic translation: Samira Saraya

Translation and subtitles: Aley Koteret

Coordinator: Liat Benzguida

 

We are grateful to all the women who shared moments of their personal lives with us, and to the Russian Orthodox sisters of the Convent of St. Mary Magdalene, Gethsemane, Jerusalem, for their guidance.

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