| The Romeo and Juliet paradigm frames La Petite Jérusalem, a French film directed by Karin Albou. Laura (played by Fanny Valette) was brought to a Paris suburb from Tunisia by her widowed mother (played by Sonia Tahar) some years ago. She is studying philosophy at a university in Paris and finds Kantian wisdom to be an attractive alternative to the straight-laced Judaism of her family; in the evening, after a Kantian constitutional, she works as a school custodian. Her sister Mathilde (played by Elsa Zylberstein) denies sexual favors to her husband Ariel (played by Bruno Todeschini) in the belief that the sole objective of such activity is procreation, and she evidently does not want a child. Meanwhile, Laua meets coworker Djamel (played by Hedi Tillette de Clermont-Tonnerre), a Moslem former journalist from Algeria who is in the country illegally. He attracted to her, but she is shy and unwilling to have any relationship other than with the great philosophers of the ages. Ultimately, Mathilde seeks guidance at a spa run by a Jewish woman, and Laura tags along to hear that cuddling and fondling is permitted so long as orgasm does not occur. Laura then decides to succumb to Djaniel’s advances, going down a path that her mother fears will lead to matrimony as well as a required conversion to Islam. However, a synagogue is burned, and Ariel is on one occasion roughed up in a park. The family, accordingly, decides to move from the Paris suburb to Israel. Laura’s decision whether to join her family, marry Djamel, or remain alone in Paris ends the tale. MH |