The Poker Widows

Germany | 2011 | 56 Minutes | Hebrew

A film about nostalgia, loneliness and friendship – and a way to play with it.

At first glance, the meetings seem like any other senior citizens’ coffee party: A group of women sit cosily around the table, eating nibbles and chatting about the latest gossip of the day, but a few minutes later the conversations are replaced by concentrated silence. Each of the women takes shekels worth several hundred euros out of her handbag and places them on the table in front of her. A hard and fast poker game begins, the women bet their money on their luck.

They have been playing almost every day for decades – Sara (76), Kochava (77), Olga (78), a group of widows and mothers, tough players, vulnerable and sensitive only at the thought of their happy marriages of long ago. Their “society”, as they call it, was founded around 35 years ago as an attempt to assert themselves as a women’s club in Haifa’s rough poker scene: no men were ever allowed to join. For a long time, they vacillated between two roles: faithful wives and mothers during the day and players at night. Now, however – widowed and alone for several years – grief over their deceased partner creeps into the card table.

In one poker round after another, the film “The Poker Widows” unfolds their life stories and uncovers a complex and paradoxical web of relationships between the old ladies: they all walk a fine line between love and hate, friendship and rivalry – dictated by the mood swings triggered by winning and losing.

Despite the looming end, the women’s behaviour at the poker table is just as lively and vital as it was 35 years ago. Director Ronen Rao is Sara’s son and grew up with the poker round. His film offers a glimpse into the unique world of an unusual community of destiny and its very own game. “The Poker Widows” is a film about poker, but also about nostalgia, loneliness and friendship – and a playful way of dealing with it.

Credits

Sound: Sharon Luzon, Yishai Ilan
Music: Uri Brauner Kinrot
Commissioning Editor: Kathrin Brinkmann
Production Companies: ZDF/Arte and TIME PRINTS