GOLEM--THE SPIRIT OF EXILE was made in Paris while writer-director Amos Gitai was himself in exile. Gitai left his native Israel after his 1982 documentary, FIELD DIARY, openly critical of the Israeli military, met with a hostile reaction. His personal connection to the material is evident. He assembled a remarkable international cast, including Hanna Schygulla (THE MARRIAGE OF MARIA BRAUN), Marisa Paredes (ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER), and directors Sam Fuller (PICKUP ON SOUTH STREET) and Bernardo Bertolucci (THE CONFORMIST) to make this challenging, audacious film. GOLEM draws from the biblical story of Ruth, and the Jewish legend from the Kabbalah, of the golem (a clay figure brought to life by a powerful rabbi) to explore the theme of exile in a modern setting. The film offers many pleasures, the most obvious of which is Gitai's sumptuous visuals. While he has always been an intellectually driven filmmaker, Gitai, as much as any filmmaker, understands how to translate his themes into arresting imagery. Here, the plot of a woman and her sisters forced into exile after the deaths of their husbands is secondary to the shimmering beauty of Gitai's palette, and the poetic language of his script.