So much of the story of the movie Valeria is Getting Married is told through actress Lena Fraifeld’s achingly expressive face. However, Frailfeld does not portray the title character but her sister, Christina.
Christina, a Russian-speaking woman from Ukraine, has already gotten married a few years before the movie starts, to Michael (Yaakov Zada Daniel), an Israeli who brokers such marriages. It is Michael who arranges the marriage for Valeria (Dasha Tvoronovich) to come and marry in Israel and at the beginning of the story, Christina awaits her sister happily but also a little anxiously.
The title of the film really ought to be Is Valeria Getting Married? because Christina knows that this kind of mail-order partnership is not a done deal.
Is Valeria Getting Married?
This movie, which was conceived and filmed before the war in Ukraine broke out, is a realistic-feeling story about women who will do almost anything to leave behind the poverty in which they grew up and the men who choose to marry women in such desperate straits.
It is hard not to pity the women who enter into such unions and equally hard to not judge the men who marry them. But such marriages do exist – all over the world – and writer/director Michal Vinik takes a clear look at the issue in this film. While the story is told mostly through Christina’s point of view – and her divided loyalties are the real drama here – there are no villains.
“You see, in this world, there is one awful thing and that is that everyone has his reasons.”
Jean Renoir
This movie is a great illustration of the quote from Jean Renoir in The Rules of the Game: “You see, in this world, there is one awful thing and that is that everyone has his reasons.”
Vinik manages to explore everyone’s reasons in this engaging, thought-provoking film but her sympathies and ours, are with the women. Christina lives with Michael in an immaculate apartment in a not-particularly attractive housing development somewhere in Israel. She has played the game by the rules and is reaping the rewards. She dresses nicely and has a job at a nail salon, where she has a Russian-speaking friend who is her closest confidant in Israel. She has learned Hebrew quite well and is converting to Judaism.
Michael doesn’t seem to be a bad guy and he has held up his end of the bargain. But into her well-ordered life comes Valeria, her more free-spirited sister, who arrives from Ukraine because Michael has arranged for her to marry an awkward man named Eitan (Avraham Shalom Levi). Christina is overjoyed at the idea of having her sister back in her life but she is also scared: What if things don’t go well between Valeria and Eitan? She is worried not only for her sister but also about how a bad outcome will affect her marriage to Michael.
While Michael is nice to her, he holds all the cards, as the men do in these relationships. Eitan arrives at their apartment to meet Valeria, bearing gifts and uttering Russian proverbs he has learned, trying to win over Valeria. But there is an undercurrent to the scene and the whole story that is not so nice. As they have lunch, he asks Michael when Christina will become an Israeli citizen.
In about a year, Michael says and Eitan responds, “So until then she’ll do what you say?” Michael responds sternly but Eitan is just saying what is on all their and our minds.
There’s a built-in suspense to this story and Vinik allows it to unfold gracefully. The actors are a great ensemble and work well together but it was Fraifeld’s portrayal of Christina that drew me into the movie from its opening moments and held my attention throughout. There is something appealing about her and you can feel the pain of her dilemma, as she tries to support her flaky, romantic sister without upsetting her husband, trying to use her rule-following, good-girl personality to create an outcome that will work for everyone.
Fraifeld brings great depth to her character through her low-key performance. She has an air of authority as she tells her sister why the way of life she has chosen is the best path but you can also look into her eyes and see her doubts. She loves her sister but Valeria has probably driven her crazy for most of her life and you absorb every flicker of her internal conflict.
Without being preachy, the movie tells a story that depicts an exaggerated version of the economic imbalance that exists in many marriages. But it’s only in retrospect that you will think about that. As you are watching it, you will be absorbed by the characters and mesmerized by Fraifeld.
Vinik, who made the movie Blush in 2015 and who wrote the screenplay for Michal Aviad’s Working Woman, Israel’s first MeToo movie, won the 2022 Ophir Best Screenplay Award for Valeria and the movie also won the Israeli Feature Film competition at the Haifa International Film Festival. The movie deserved these honors.
It takes place over the course of a day and in just 76 minutes illuminates a world most of us know little about, in a way that may fundamentally change your perceptions about immigrants and marriage, which is no small feat.