16/03/2022 - The story focuses on the conflict arising within a couple who must deal with the trauma of a stranger desecrating their relationship

Director Mordechai Vardi with actor Yoav Rotman on the set of Barren

Israeli writer-director Mordechai Vardi is best known for his work on documentaries and feature films for TV. He is a peace activist and a member of the "ROOTS" organisation, and was the head of the Screenwriting department at the Ma’aleh Film School for 20 years. His latest film, Marry Me HOWEVER, has made quite a splash and is participating in many festivals around the world. Vardi is currently in post-production with his latest work, Barren.

Paige and Naftali are a young, childless, ultra-Orthodox couple living with Naftali's parents. Naftali travels to Ukraine to pray for a child during the holiday, at Rabbi Nachman's grave. During his absence, a guest is invited to stay for the holiday with the family: he introduces himself as Rabbi Eliyahu, who can heal people by blowing the shofar, an ancient musical horn. Taking advantage of Paige's trust and her desire for a child, he rapes her. When Naftali returns, the couple face a difficult crisis, which raises fundamental questions about faith.

This is the story of Barren, which, according to the director, is based on cases that have happened in real life, and the way the clergy has been dealing with the phenomenon. In the face of clerics, women are very vulnerable and exposed, as in Molière's Tartuffe, and this phenomenon also exists in Judaism. For example, in Hungary, at the end of the 20^th century, a man introduced himself as a great rabbi and convinced a woman to sleep with him because she was destined to carry the new Messiah.

Vardi underlines: “I chose to deal with the conflict between faith, religion and sexuality, the dark place where the urge breaks through under the cover of mystical belief, and I hope to bring this subject up to enable a real discussion in order to stop it from happening.” The cast includes Mili Eshet, Yoav Rothman, Ilanit Ben Yaakov, Nevo Kimhi, Gil Frank and Michael Vigel.

Barren is being produced by Daroma Productions, an award-winning film production company founded in 2008 by Elad Peleg and Haggai Arad, and has received the support of the Israel Film Project - Rabinovich Foundation, the Galil Film Fund and Mifal Hapais.