Nadav Mishali | אישך, תשוקתך (Longing) / 2014

no voice

by Douglas Messerli

 

Nadav Mishali (screenwriter and director) / אישך, תשוקתך (Longing) / 2014 [20 minutes]

 

In the orthodox marriage of Michal (Meytal Gal) and Meir (Tomer Lev Tov), she an obedient Jewish wife, which means her subservience to her husband, and he is a devout yeshiva student.

     Every month, with the help of her mother-in-law, the beautiful Michal immerses herself, as part of the religious ritual in the tradition Mikveh bath, prepared and purified to again have sex with her husband. Yet nothing happens. She is left alone, and she is frightened by the fact and more importantly, is left longing with sexual desire.

     The rabbi has recently asked Meir to be the spiritual advisor to several students, an important new responsibility which means more time with some of the yeshiva boys. He is pleased by his new position.

      While cleaning out the pockets of his clothing in order to wash them, she discovers a condom in one of his pockets. When she shares this information, her mother-in-law (Rita Shukrun) asks her what she did; the explains she put it back, the mother-in-law praises her decision, quoting Moses and arguing that prayer is the best solution.

       It is truly a world where women’s voices have no meaning, partly because they themselves, given the Orthodox laws, refuse to speak up. The older woman argues that “our strengths are in our mouths,” not because they speak out, because the whisper silent prayers to God. In fact, the woman are given “no voice,” despite their endless prayer and isolation. “It is doesn’t hurt to turn a blind eye to some things,” the elderly woman argues.

       The irony of her comments are apparent, but as pointed as the pain of silence which now Michal must daily suffer, as from the kitchen, always, ironing, cleaning, cooking, she begins to perceive in her brief views of the other room where her husband is “advising” one of his male pupils (Yehuda Nahari Halevi) she sees them obviously touching one another and putting their heads close together as in a kiss.

      In the bed soon after, she again attempts to sexually approach her husband, but he, kissing her on the forehead, turns away, as she must do equally, having been refused yet again.

       The film’s synopsis declares that when “Michal finds out her husband is having an affair with a man, her world collapses, and she is forced to deal with sexual rejection from Meir, as well as social rejections from society, which is quick to judge a woman who must follow.”

       Despite the fact that we like to think that gay behavior often means the rejection of patriarchal normativity, here it only supports and reinforces it. Wives are not permitted to enquire about their husband’s sexual lives.

       This is a beautiful and quite powerful film and recontextualizes gay behavior in a world of hidden male religious power from which women are ostracized.

 

Los Angeles, September 4, 2026

Reprinted from My Queer Cinema blog (September 2026).