Israeli filmmaker Anat Zuria examines the Tharat Hamishpaha (family purity), the ancient laws and rituals shaping womenÃs lives and sexuality within Jewish Orthodoxy. Giving new insight into a guarded religious community, Zuria presents her own experiences adhering to Orthodox practices, as well as those of her friends Natalie, Katie and Shira. At the heart of their stories is the "niddaî - a ten to twelve day period restricting women from touching or engaging in sexual intimacy with their husbands, which culminates with a trip to the ìmikveî (cleansing baths). Each woman introduces this practice through very different perspectives - one sadly leaves her marriage in protest, one attempts to work within the tradition despite the emotional and physical stress it causes, while another proudly teaches the laws to her daughter. Beautifully incorporating lyrical and meditative images with interviews, "Purity" presents the hidden struggle of religious women to maintain their cultural traditions and individual needs within the framework of strict, masculine religious law.
