Starring Ronit Elkabetz. In Hebrew and French, with English subtitles. Rating unavailable.

In many places, holy books are heavy objects to be brought down on the heads of women and children, and it’s surprising to see that the blows can land harder in supposedly modern Israel, where The Trial of Viviane Amsalem takes place.

Played by Ronit Elkabetz, who wrote and directed the two-hour film with her brother, Shlomi Elkabetz, the woman of the title sits through five years of trial, with rabbis presiding over a court more determined to find flaws in her character than to listen to her case. They can only grant divorce (or gett) if both parties agree to it, and her husband, Elisha (Simon Abkarian), refuses to do so. Often, he doesn’t even show up, sending his brother (Sasson Gabai). Only Viviane’s lawyer (memorable Menashe Noy) is there to persuade judges who have zero interest in her feelings, thoughts, or dreams.

The leads in this powerful drama, which takes place entirely in the airless confines of a featureless courtroom and its clinical antechamber, are holdovers from earlier tales crafted by the siblings. To Take a Wife (2004) illuminated the Moroccan-Jewish background of the families involved and of Viviane’s burning need to escape her husband. Shiva (known here as 7 Days), from four years later, showed the two families distracted, even at a funeral, by long-standing feuds and the almost incidental threat of war.

This phenomenal trilogy was initially based on the experiences of the Elkabetzes’ mother, but by now the story is pure commentary on women stuck in a society so quietly misogynistic, its members literally can’t fully see the world around them. Although the movie can appear theatrical at times, its disarmingly subjective camera angles and sudden outbursts of dark humour and irrepressible emotion make this a riveting experience—one that will make you want to curse both man and god.