Three Times Divorced

Khitam is a Palestinian woman who was born in the Gaza strip. As tradition dictated, she married the man chosen for her by her family, Makbul, an Israeli Arab. She moved to Israel and bore him six children. She might have hoped that a life in Israel would be better than the circumstances she grew up in, but when her violent husband divorced her in abstentia she was left with nothing, no home, no property, without her children and without the right to remain in Israel. Khitam’s only failure as a wife seems to be that she was too strong and educated for her husband’s liking, but for this she is paying a heavy price. We follow Khitam’s brave and seemingly impossible battle against the courts, the authorities and her husband to get back what she has lost. She searches for her children, begs for help from the state and even goes back one last time to her husband – a serious mistake that almost costs her her life. Still she refuses to give up her fight until she is reunited with her children. This is a film about one woman’s struggle for justice in a powerfully patriarchal society. (DOK.fest München)