The Great Sadness of Zohara Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		4.0

The Great Sadness of Zohara Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman November 5, 2023

Note: This film is available on Blu-ray as part of Arbelos' Cinematic Sorceress: The Films of Nina Menkes release.

Nina Menkes is a name many are probably not all that familiar with, but she might be an interesting filmmaker to check out for anyone who has ever felt displaced or on some kind of journey toward "self", since there's a certain mystical quality to Menkes' work that should resonate even for those who aren't particularly fond of some of the "artier" aspects of independent film. Menkes' Jewish parents evidently were able to make it out of Nazi Germany as children, but there's maybe just a slight touch of what has been termed "intergenerational Holocaust trauma" running through her work, at least as a subliminal subtext. While Menkes' Jewish heritage is probably most noticeable in efforts like The Great Sadness of Zohara, which was shot in and around Jerusalem, and Dissolution, which was shot in Jaffa and is in Hebrew, there's a rather fascinating current of spiritually wandering individuals, Jewish or not, throughout many of the features and shorts assembled in this collection by Arbelos. The subjects are actually rather far ranging, and several productions are set in the good old United States, but Menkes has both a deconstructionist ethos (which at times is rather reminiscent of the Nouvelle Vague) combined with an often audacious sense of visuals, which might be best exemplified by the snippets shown on the main menus of the two discs in this collection, with Disc One offering a moment from Queen of Diamonds with a really arresting look at a giant palm tree that is aflame, with two people standing next to it, just gazing off into the distance, and Disc Two offering an equally surreal moment from The Bloody Child, where what looks like a Marine Corps checkpoint or crime scene is suddenly interrupted by a wild horse galloping up the road.

The Great Sadness of Zohara might be a rather visceral piece to watch, considering what's been tragically unfolding in the Middle East over the past month or so as this review is being written. Some may know that one of the primary texts of Jewish mysticism is the Zohar, which may have played in to the choice for the titular character's name (played by Menkes' sister and quasi-muse Tinka), though the word itself can mean "splendor" or "radiance". Interestingly and saliently, the character is never actually named in the film, other than by some arguably ghostly voices that afflict her, which probably adds to the feeling that she is some kind of, well, nameless cipher caught in the throes of isolation and possibly even dissociation.

While Zohara hears voices "from the other side", there's no traditional dialogue in this film, something else that adds to the completely bizarre, dreamlike atmosphere. Zohara seems to be an ultra orthodox Jewish woman living (barely existing?) in Jerusalem, but once she removes her head covering, a bright shock of short cropped bleached blonde hair is revealed, hair that she later (if one subscribes to a traditional chronology in this film, which might be a mistake) takes scissors to, shearing it even further. This is just one clue as to Zohara's disposition vis a vis "her" community, though on a more "meta" level the fact that she's first glimpsed surrounded by Hasidic males while munching on an apple may suggest yet more subtext. She sets out on a "vision quest" of sorts, which takes her into Arab territories. Whether or not that quest results in any catharis is left as ambiguous as much else in this startling and arresting short.

The Great Sadness of Zohara Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Great Sadness of Zohara is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Arbelos with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.34:1. Perhaps surprisingly, Arbelos doesn't offer a wealth of technical information on any of the transfers in this set, and in fact several films aren't mentioned at all in the technical information. That said, the following generic verbiage about this film is included in the insert booklet:

The Great Sadness of Zohara restoration was made possible by Interbay Cinema Society (ICS) / Light press Grants.

This was a micro-budgeted feature (reportedly only a few thousand dollars) shot on 16mm, and so expectations need to be set appropriately in terms of detail levels and grain resolution, but on the whole this is a rather impressive looking transfer that preserves the grittiness of the source element and which also offers a nicely suffused palette, although one that can have a slightly cool blue undertone, as can perhaps be gleaned from some of the screenshots I've uploaded to accompany this review. Detail levels aren't especially fulsome in wide and even some midrange framings, with a good deal of fuzziness attending things, but close-ups can fare considerably better. The film's weird, dreamlike imagery is freewheeling in any case, and while the source can only provide so much "information", there are no signs of aggressive digital tweaking.

The Great Sadness of Zohara Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Great Sadness of Zohara features an LPCM Mono track that may not be a whirlwind of sonic activity but which more than capably supports the odd dissociative qualities of the character, as various weird hallucinogenic sounds and muttered phrases dot the soundtrack. Those noises can include things that sound like breathing or in fact choking, as well as more putatively "normal" ambient environmental effects. Optional English subtitles are available.

The Great Sadness of Zohara Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Arbelos has packaged this release with three films per disc, with some "general interest" supplements on both discs, so I'm offering the complete list of supplements here, which may or may not be specific to this particular film.

Disc One

• Nina Menkes in conversation with Mike Plante (HD; 25:55)


• Cards on the Table (HD; 11:33) is a kind of cool visual essay linking Menkes' work to the Tarot, which itself has Kabbalistic links.


• Queen of Diamonds Trailer (HD; 1:44)


• Commentary on The Great Sadness of Zohara is by Nina Menkes.


• Commentary on Magdalena Viraga is by Nina Menkes.

Disc Two

• Nina Menkes in Conversation with Ann Hornaday (HD; 31:27)


• Nina Menkes in Conversation with K.J. Relth-Miller (HD; 27:34)


• The Bloody Child Trailer (HD; 1:13)


• Cinematic Sorceress: Retrospective Trailer (HD; 1:57)


• Short film: The Lioness (HD; 2:00)


• Commentary on Phantom Love is by Nina Menkes.


• Commentary on Dissolution is by Nina Menkes.

The Great Sadness of Zohara Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

One of the many "rules" of Jewish study is that only those over 60 or so are supposed to look into mystical things like the Kabbalah, which makes it perhaps (sacrilegiously?) amusing that some family member whom I've forgotten actually gave me a copy of the Zohar when I was probably eight or nine or so, something that helped spark my own interest in this curious nook and/or cranny of religious tradition. I'm frankly not sure if The Great Sadness of Zohara actually means anything in the long run, but it's curiously captivating in its own dreamlike and/or nightmarish way. Technical merits are generally solid given the source element, and at least for those interested in something a little (a lot?) unusual, The Great Sadness of Zohara comes Recommended.