When Hope Becomes a Daily Practice

MOVIE REVIEW
Holy Ghetto
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Genre: Documentary
Year Released: 2025
Runtime: 1h 23m
Director(s): iLan Azoulai
Where to Watch: shown at the 2026 Dances with Films New York

RAVING REVIEW: What does hope mean when it has to coexist with addiction, exploitation, and survival rather than replace them? HOLY GHETTO asks that question without romanticizing its answers. Set within Tel Aviv’s red-light district, the documentary turns its attention to people who live inside systems designed to erase them. Director iLan Azoulai doesn’t present their stories as cautionary tales or inspirational arcs; instead, he frames them as ongoing negotiations with trauma, faith, and endurance.

The film follows four central figures whose lives intersect within this marginalized space. Olga, a survivor of sex trafficking; Dave, an outsider who founded a shelter for women in prostitution; Yana, a recovering addict and mother struggling to hold onto stability; and Ohad, a former trafficker seeking redemption. HOLY GHETTO resists the power structure among these perspectives. No single voice dominates the narrative, and no one is positioned as the film’s center. That balance is one of the documentary’s greatest strengths.

Azoulai’s approach is deeply personal, enlightened by his own background and spiritual framework. The film leans into ideas of healing, transcendence, and transformation, often allowing participants to articulate their experiences through reflection rather than exposition. This gives HOLY GHETTO a contemplative tone that sets it apart from more investigative or journalistic documentaries about trafficking and addiction. The focus is less on systemic explanation and more on lived interiority.

That choice, however, is also where the film becomes divisive. HOLY GHETTO frequently prioritizes spiritual framing over structural critique. Viewers looking for detailed examinations of policy, enforcement, or institutional failure may find the film somewhat abstract. The documentary acknowledges the machinery of exploitation but rarely dissects it. Instead, it stays close to emotional and spiritual terrain, trusting that intimacy alone carries sufficient weight.

The film captures the red-light district as a space of contradiction. Decay and life exist side by side; desperation and routine share the same streets. The cinematography never sanitizes the environment, but it also avoids voyeurism. Faces receive more attention than locations, reinforcing the film’s insistence that place matters because of the people trapped within it, not for its shock value.

One of the film’s most compelling views is its treatment of redemption, particularly through Ohad’s presence. HOLY GHETTO never asks the audience to forgive him, nor does it condemn him outright. His pursuit of transformation is presented as uncertain and incomplete, which feels honest. Redemption here is not framed as absolution; it is framed as responsibility without guarantees.
Dave’s role is just as complex. As an American operating within an unfamiliar system, he works in a liminal space between advocacy and intervention. The film allows his motivations to stand without interrogation, which lends warmth but also raises questions the documentary chooses not to ask. HOLY GHETTO frequently trusts its subjects more than it challenges them, a choice that underscores its empathy while limiting its analytical depth.

Yana’s story is among the film’s most moving, not because it’s sensational, but because it remains unresolved. Her struggle as a mother and recovering addict resists true closure. The film doesn’t pretend otherwise. There is no final transformation, no symbolic triumph. Her presence embodies the documentary’s core thesis: endurance itself can be an achievement, even when progress is fragile.

The absence of traditional narrative escalation may test some viewers’ patience. HOLY GHETTO tells its story at an even pace, favoring reflection over momentum. This steadiness reinforces the reality of lives that do not move in clean arcs, but it also means the film occasionally feels somewhat emotionally distant. Moments that could have carried a deeper impact pass quietly, sometimes too quietly. In the end, though, I think the film had to be handled this way!

Where HOLY GHETTO succeeds the most is in its refusal to exploit suffering for emotional payoff. The film never uses pain as spectacle, and it never pretends that hope arrives just when you need it. Its compassion is genuine, and its restraint feels ethical. As a debut feature documentary, HOLY GHETTO reflects a filmmaker who is deeply invested in his subjects and their survival. It offers something rare: a space for reflection that neither demands nor offers a total resolution. The film asks viewers to sit with discomfort rather than process it into meaning.

HOLY GHETTO isn’t an easy watch, and it was never meant to be. Its power lies in its insistence that transformation is not a destination but a process that expands unevenly, often without witnesses. While its approach sometimes softens the sharpest edges of its subject matter, its empathy never feels performative. That balance earns the film its place, even as it leaves room for deeper interrogation.

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[photo courtesy of ONEWORLD GROUP, SHIRLEY PADEN PRODUCTIONS]

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