THE GREAT SADNESS OF ZOHARA

Alienated from her orthodox community in Jerusalem, a young woman opens to the world of the spirit. Surrounded by strange sounds of the «other side», she is drawn into remote and increasingly desolate regions of Arab lands. Her journey, like a mystical quest through her own inner landscapes, culminates in her return to Jerusalem. There, indelibly marked, she confronts her deeper loneliness, and devastating sense of exile. The Great Sadness of Zohara was Nina Menkes's first 16mm production, created while she was a graduate student at UCLA. Sisters Nina and Tinka Menkes traveled alone through North Africa and Israel, carrying their camera, film, costumes, and clothes in regular suitcases and using public transportation. The total cost of the pro-ject including travel was under 7.000 US-Dollar.
While all cinematic endeavors are inevitably about manipulation, Menkes' work manipulates in a sophisticated, subtle and perhaps mystical way. The mysticism evoked by Menkes can also be found in Maya Deren's work; both artists use the tools of cinema to sculpt new forms of narrative. Their films are not formal exercises in reductivism, but spiritual exercises - mantras guiding us towards a new language - or perhaps outside of language. (Eric Freedman)

New copy from the collection of the Academy Film Archive

This film is shown together with Soft Warrior.