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La Petite J�rusalem (Little Jerusalem) (2005)

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All Critics
Top Critics

Average Rating: 6.1/10
Reviews Counted: 27
Fresh: 17 | Rotten: 10

No consensus yet.

Average Rating: 5.9/10
Critic Reviews: 13
Fresh: 8 | Rotten: 5

No consensus yet.

audience

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Average Rating: 2.9/5
User Ratings: 8,238

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Movie Info

An orthodox Jewish teen living with her family in France attempts to balance her religious upbringing with her increasingly complex view of the outside world in director Karin Albou's incisive meditation on religion, philosophy, and the weight of romance on the mind of a growing girl. Eighteen-year-old student Laura (Fanny Valette) lives with her widowed mother (Sonia Tahar), her sister (Elsa Zylberstein), and her brother-in-law (Bruno Todeschini) in the suburban Paris neighborhood of Sarcelles.

Unrated, 1 hr. 37 min.

Art House & International, Drama

Directed By: Karin Albou

Written By: Karin Albou

In Theaters: Jan 27, 2006 Limited

On DVD: Sep 12, 2006

Kino International

La Petite J�rusalem (Little Jerusalem) Trailer & Photos

Cast

Critic Reviews for La Petite J�rusalem (Little Jerusalem)

All Critics (28) | Top Critics (14) | Fresh (17) | Rotten (10) | DVD (3)

It is a story told in small moments, the camera close-up on a look, the stroke of a hand, the way a blonde thread is revealed in a husband's jacket.

May 19, 2006 Full Review Source: Toronto Star

| Comment

Susan Walker

Toronto Star

Top Critic

Anyone shopping by the ton for melodrama is well advised to browse the ample display on view in this cinematic square.

May 19, 2006 Full Review Source: Globe and Mail

| Comment

Rick Groen

Globe and Mail

Top Critic

The grand ideas are effectively integrated into a drama that relies equally upon the head, the heart and the body for inspiration.

May 6, 2006 Full Review Source: Los Angeles Times

| Comment

Kevin Crust

Los Angeles Times

Top Critic

It's very well-acted and directed, shot with great vigor, mostly in roaming closeups that plunge us right into the thick of things.

May 4, 2006 Full Review Source: Chicago Tribune

| Comment

Michael Wilmington

Chicago Tribune

Top Critic

It evaporates from your mind even while watching it.

February 13, 2006 Comment

Frank Scheck

Hollywood Reporter

Top Critic

In their separate ways, Laura and Mathilde have discovered how to shape their own destinies in a turbulent period of clashing civilizations.

February 9, 2006 Comment

Andrew Sarris

New York Observer

Top Critic

This beautiful tale of two sisters living in Sarcelles, a low-income Parisian suburb of mostly new immigrants, presents the darker side of religion while offering a candid view of an Orthodox Jewish family struggling to stay together.

September 15, 2006 Full Review Source: Miami Herald

| Comment

Marta Barber

Miami Herald

The film, which means well in its attempt to touch on Kantian philosophy, racial divides, sex and orthodoxy, and secularism versus religion, manages to insult each one of these heavy subjects by not giving any of them the serious, thoughtful attention the

August 16, 2006 Full Review Source: Bangitout.com

| Comment

Jordan Hiller

Bangitout.com

The background of Little Jerusalem is a grimy landscape, both physical and political, and it overwhelms the fragile exploration undertaken by the sisters. Or maybe that's the whole point.

May 19, 2006 Full Review Source: Jam! Movies

| Comment

Liz Braun

Jam! Movies

Rich in perceptive details, Albou's film has drawn favorable comparison to the work of Claire Denis (The Intruder, Friday Night), and both directors share a sensual sensitivity to their characters' inner lives.

May 12, 2006 Full Review Source: Seattle Times

| Comment

Jeff Shannon

Seattle Times

[If the film] is a story of escape and liberation, it also shows a calibrated respect for tradition and the ancient pull of family loyalty.

May 4, 2006 Full Review Source: L.A. Weekly

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Ella Taylor

L.A. Weekly

Albou is adventurous in intermixing a young woman's coming-of-age with a search for secular belief but her story is a bit shy on drama.

April 13, 2006 Full Review Source: Cinema Signals

| Comment

Jules Brenner

Cinema Signals

Even though the romance angle disappoints, the story still holds interest because of the jarring cultural differences, even between the Paris-reared daughters and their superstitious Tunisian mother.

March 2, 2006 Full Review Source: South Florida Sun-Sentinel

| Comment

Laura Kelly

South Florida Sun-Sentinel

The best reason to watch La Petite Jerusalem is Fanny Valette, a bona-fide beauty who brings a commitment and gravity to scenes that don't always deserve them.

January 29, 2006 Full Review Source: Film Journal International

| Comment

Daniel Eagan

Film Journal International

Beautifully played by Valette and Zylberstein, and directed with amazing grace by Albou, this touching film offers a respectful, fascinating look at a community that's ignored as often as it's misunderstood.

January 27, 2006 Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide

| Comment

Ken Fox

TV Guide's Movie Guide

More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for La Petite J�rusalem (Little Jerusalem)

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A quiet, thoughtful examination of sexuality and freedom within a Jewish enclave in Paris. Two sisters, who live together and work at the same day care facility, explore what it means to be modest according to their religious traditions, and still express their sexual natures. The elder, Mathilde (Elsa Zylberstein),

June 10, 2010

Mark Abell

Super Reviewer

This is an excellent cultural snapshot and has a near archetypal presentation of the Sephardi French Jewish mother. Very good sense of Jewish family issues, a quite good insider/outsider look besides being a good drama.

December 18, 2006