To Take A Wife 2004

In Haifa in 1979, hairdresser Viviane Amsalem Ronit Elkabetz finds herself listening to her brothers as they urge her to drop the idea of divorce and return to her husband. In front of the family, her husband, Eliahou, Simon Abkarian promises that things will be different this time. Yet when morning comes, he leaves her to shoulder the four children on her own while she tries to keep up with her work and the daily grind of a busy household.

Before she starts work, she receives a call from Albert, a former lover Gilbert Melki who asks to meet. Over the course of the day, Viviane balances her hairdressing clients, the ongoing tension with Eliahou, and the needs of her children. As her petty grievances with her husband accumulate, the tensions burst at night: she erupts, fists flying, in front of their children and a neighbor who steps in to help separate them.

The following day, Viviane agrees to see Albert in a cafe, where he presses her to leave her husband and reveals that the last time he asked, she was ready to go, only for him to flee with his own family to Africa. After their meeting, he drops her at a bus stop in the rain, then returns to share a kiss, leaving her with a weathered mix of emotions and uncertainty about what comes next.

The next morning, Viviane dreams that she is driving through the countryside, only to be awakened by Eliahou’s anger as their eldest son refuses to go to synagogue with him. When Viviane asks him to back off, they quarrel, and in a moment of rebellion, she lights a cigarette with a match, breaking the rules of Shabbat. Eliahou ultimately leaves for the synagogue alone, leaving Viviane to weep.

In the synagogue, while serving as hazzan, he stumbles in his singing, still unsettled by the morning’s quarrel with his wife. The conflict lingers as the day unfolds, shaping the fragile balance of their family and underscoring a shared, unresolved ache that threads through their routines, duties, and moments of quiet despair.