A Jewish featus grows for nine months in its mother’s womb. Eight days after the birth, her husband must circumcise him. The husband blesses, while the mother remains a distant spectator upon the covenant that is made between her son and her Maker. The moment, which in reality lasts for a number of seconds, is just a tip of the tension between faith, religion and religious law, between cultural conventions and the most basic feelings of a mother, who in any other case would give her life to prevent her son from being hurt. The film focuses on the eight days between birth and circumcision, a week in which powerful emotions bring women to the heights of joy and the depths of pain, in which the extremities of the relationships with God are found. God who takes part in the creation, who determines one’s fate, who is closer and further away than ever. Is there a way for a woman to worship her God? To love her God? To be angry at him? Covenant is a film about women, God and all that’s in between.


Covenant: Women, God and All Between (birth)

Doc, 52 min, 2005

Written & Directed by: Nurit Jacobs Yinon
Produced by: Two Shot Productions
Sponsored by: The Rabinowitz Foundation – Cinema Project & Gesher Foundation

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Synopsis


A Jewish featus grows for nine months in its mother’s womb. Eight days after the birth, her husband must circumcise him. The husband blesses, while the mother remains a distant spectator upon the covenant that is made between her son and her Maker. The moment, which in reality lasts for a number of seconds, is just a tip of the tension between faith, religion and religious law, between cultural conventions and the most basic feelings of a mother, who in any other case would give her life to prevent her son from being hurt. The film focuses on the eight days between birth and circumcision, a week in which powerful emotions bring women to the...

Awards

  • Best Documentary Award – Religion Today International Film Festival, Trento, Italy, 2006

Festivals

  • Vienna Jewish Film Festival, Austria, 2010
  • Religion Film Festival, Brazil, 2007
  • Jersey Shore Jewish Film Festival, USA, 2007
  • Nazareth International Human Rights Film Festival, Israel, 2006

Additional info

Gallery

Press & Links:

  • " My husband and I have three daughters, so we have never had to contemplate the meaning of brit for ourselves. It seems to me much easier for the new father – after all, the baby is not the fruit of his womb – and even moreso, this ceremony will make his baby look the same as he looks in the most private sense. But how does a young mother relate to this event, is it painful for her to turn her perfectly formed little baby boy over to the mohel for a brit?

    Filmmaker, Nurit Jacobs Yinon, looks at the woman's point of view in Covenant – Women, God and All Between (2005). She interviews young mothers who discuss the meaning of brit for them especially vis-à-vis their relationship to God and that brit is a unique opportunity for a new mother to state publicly that she has actively taken part in the process of creation."

    For the review by Amy Kronish, check:

    http://israelfilm.blogspot.com/2008/09/two-unique-perspectives-on-brit.html

Festivals

  • Vienna Jewish Film Festival, Austria, 2010
  • Religion Film Festival, Brazil, 2007
  • Jersey Shore Jewish Film Festival, USA, 2007
  • Nazareth International Human Rights Film Festival, Israel, 2006
  • Dickinson College, USA, 2007
  • Austin Jewish Film Festival, USA, 2007
  • Delray Beach Film Festival, USA, 2007
  • Nazareth International Human Rights Film Festival, Israel, 2006
  • Religion Today International Film Festival, Trento, Italy, 2006
  • Holy Land in the Heartland, USA, 2006
  • Sesily International Film Festival, Georgia, 2006
  • Warsaw Jewish Motifs Film Festival, Poland, 2006
  • The Jewish Experience Section – The Jerusalem International Film Festival, 2005

Educational

  • McGill University
  • Library of Congress
  • Makor Jewish Library, Australia
  • New York University
  • Peninsula Jewish Resource Center
  • Ohio State University

Awards

  • Best Documentary Award – Religion Today International Film Festival, Trento, Italy, 2006