Badal [videorecording] / a film by Ibtisam Mara'ana ; produced by Osnat Trabelsi.

Tel-Aviv : Ibtisam Films, c2005.

1 videodisc (52 min.) : sd., col. ; 4 3/4 in.

Director Ibtisam Mara'ana was predestined, like most of her relatives, to be married off through the badal, a kind of package deal in which a brother and sister from one family marry a sister and brother from another. This marriage exchange is mainly aimed at providing less marriageable daughters with a husband. Mara'ana was told that she was too old and dark, and too ugly due to a scar on her hand, and that without the godsend of the badal, she would fall by the wayside. She refused to cooperate. Instead, she made this documentary to show how women oppress women. Her aunt, the deeply conservative Um Waji, and her equally traditional mother want to arrange a special badal for Um Waji's eldest son, who was left a widower at a young age, and his eldest daughter. The director's instructive and unsentimental comment accompanies unadorned images, introducing both the older and the younger generations. The arch-conservatism is counterbalanced by the modern neighbor from across the way, who gives consciousness-raising courses to women and seems happy in a marriage that to Waji's granddaughters is inconceivably modern. In the end, the old women only find a candidate for the widower.

Images / Video & Film

Arabic

January 03, 2012

Written and directed by Ibtisam Mara'ana ; produced by Osnat Trabelsi; editing: Sara Salomon, Rivka Yogev; camera: Avigail Sperber, Ibtisam Mara'ana, Daniel Miran, Yossi Leon; Music: Uri Offir.

DVD-Video; Digital Beta, Beta SP; Dolby Digital 2.0; Aspect ratio 4:3; Region 0.