The Israeli documentary Monogamia has won the International Critics’ Week of Locarno Film Festival 2023, and since November 3rd, it has also landed at the Tallinn PöFF, with its portrayal of a personal but ultimately universal story, which fearlessly focuses on the concept of intimacy, fidelity, and love in long term relationships.
This is Ohad Milstein’s eighth film, and particularly his third personal documentary, the final chapter of a trilogy that revolves around the director’s family, as he takes on the role of observer, behind the camera, and sometimes in front of it.
The first film, Week 23, was centred around motherhood and the power of maternal intuition, telling the story of his wife Rahel’s first pregnancy, and the complications that arose when one of the twins died in the womb. The film’s focal point is the dilemma of whether to follow the advice of many to abort the living fetus due to the high risk of significant damage, or to continue with the pregnancy. It concludes with the marvellous birth of Alva, the couple’s firstborn. The work also narrates Rahel’s struggle against conventions and cultural norms.
The second chapter, Summer Nights focused instead on fatherhood, highlighting the summer vacations before the son enters elementary school. It is an original and intriguing piece in terms of its directorial approach, as it reveals the world of a six-year-old child in the moments between wakefulness and sleep. During that summer, Ohad and Alva had whispered conversations in the dark before the child went to sleep. Summer Nights is a stolen glimpse into the world of childhood, captured at the time in the day when we are all most exposed, vulnerable, and sincere.
The first two films of the trilogy received nominations for the Israel Academy Award (Week 23 in 2016) and won the First Prize at the DocAviv International Film Festival and the Israel Academy Award for Best Documentary in 2021 (Summer Nights).
With this final chapter, the director focuses on the life of married couples, starting with the experiences of his own parents and then exploring his own, as well as the broader concept of attraction, love, and long-term investment in relationships.
The protagonists are Avi (79) and Rita (76), as well as Ohad and Rahel (in their early 40s).
Their love stories began in different eras, with the latter experiencing modernity, in an era of constant change, hyperstimulation, and experimentation, while the former faced a more traditional context.
By delving into the cracks in Avi and Rita’s marriage, trapped in a stalemate where habit seems to have taken over completely and the days blend together (with Avi doing household chores and Rita engaging in compulsive shopping), Ohad finds himself reflecting on his own marriage. Together with Rahel, they question the nature of attraction, the possibility of maintaining it over time, the fear that it may wither with age, and the countless ways in which love can nourish itself, including embracing openness, which can be intimidating if unfamiliar. These are the most revealing moments when Rahel and Ohad take turns behind the camera, sharing their intimacy, feelings, and fears.
The film quite openly showcases these moments, blurring the line between reality and storytelling, personal life and the cinematic world. As the director himself declares, “When I was a young film student, I studied with David Perlov, one of the fathers of Israeli documentary cinema. In the first part of his film ‘Diary’ (1973), David films his daughter Yael eating soup. She invites him to eat with her. David is debating out loud between wanting to film the soup or eat it. This is actually the essence of the dilemma of every documentary filmmaker filming his personal life. Where is the line between life and the world of film?”
This is why Monogamia also conveys a reflection on the very concept of documentary filmmaking itself and, ultimately, on the value of storytelling as a means to freeze time. Just like those beautiful photographs of Avi and Rita in bathing suits, happily on the beach, facing the Red Sea and wearing sunglasses. These poses are now recreated in the construction of their new narrative, guided by the camera and by their son’s instructions, ultimately transporting them back to those years and demonstrating the magic of cinema, which transcends the barriers of time and space.
After all, documentaries are a bit like secret diaries (one’s own or someone else’s) read in public, thus creating a sense of familiarity and engraving images, feeling and sensation that will survive time, saved from oblivion.
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