Press: The Great Sadness of Zohara

The Great Sadness of Zohara Pull Quotes

This highly sensual, richly textured film of striking images creates a powerful sense of timelessness."

While all cinematic endeavors are inevitably about manipulation, Menkes' work manipulates in a sophisticated, subtle and perhaps mystical way. The mysticism evoked by Menkes can also be found in Maya Deren's work; both artists use the tools of cinema to sculpt new forms of narrative. Their films are not formal exercises in reductivism, but spiritual exercises—mantras guiding us towards a new language—or perhaps outside of language."

— Eric Freedman, Filmmaker Magazine

Alarming, arresting, powerful...brave and remarkable...risks a lot, beautiful!"

— San Francisco International Film Festival Jurors

In a particularly memorable sequence actress Tinka Menkes grabs a pair of large, crude scissors and crops her hair to jagged pieces--an act so visually and mentally disturbing that the audience felt and shared her grief deeply...Nina Menkes is an inspirational breath not only for women filmmakers but for all creative individuals oppressed by economic and political situations who question their place and identity to society and to themselves....an exquisite visual essay"

— Dylan Tran, High Performance

Menkes shot this gloriously moody film herself and acted as her only crew with actress/sister Tinka Menkes captivating as a young woman searching for spiritual connection in an alien male world. Some of cinema’s most insanely beautiful landscapes—one of the decade’s best films!”

— Director Allison Anders

The most believable images of life in exile were found with Tinka Menkes in THE GREAT SADNESS OF ZOHARA, one of the most beautiful films of the (Mannheim International Film) Festival, the journey of an American Jewess through Israel—scenes of disorientation, so quiet and concentrated that suddenly a return seems possible..."

— Manfred Etten, Mannheim Int’l Film Festival