REVIEW; 'KADOSH' LOSES ITS RELIGION AMID GRATUITOUS SEX.

Byline: Bob Strauss Film Critic

The Israeli film ``Kadosh'' lands somewhere between an astute examination of how religious fundamentalism is used by insecure men to dominate women and an overwrought excuse to watch Hasidic girls get naughty.

Certainly more intelligent and persuasive than the melodramatic ``A Price Above Rubies'' from a few years back, ``Kadosh'' nevertheless falls into the same trap the earlier film did: It reduces a critique of the ultra-observant lifestyle to narrow sexual parameters. Which is a shame, since hints of the wider political conflict between Israel's secular and religious Jews are tantalizingly dropped during the earlier stages of the drama.

Set in Jerusalem's Orthodox Mea Shearim neighborhood, the claustrophobic piece initially finds some humor in the Hasidim's frustrated efforts to convince their disinterested countrymen - and even, in brief moments, themselves - that theirs is the only true religion. But neither these brief encounters, nor the siege mentality the believers sporadically express toward the outside world, do much in the way of addressing the real struggles of faith and power that are increasingly defining the traditionalists' lives.

Instead, what we mainly get is a sometimes touching, sometimes shrill study of two tragic marriages. Meir (Yoram Hattab) and Rivka (Yael Abecassis) have been happily together for 10 years and even have a pretty hot love life, considering the cultural strictures (Meir's morning prayers thanking God for not making him a woman being an emblematic indicator). Trouble is, no babies yet, which the sect considers the only real measure of marital success.

Meanwhile, Rivka's younger sister Malka (Meital Barda) is slated to marry Meir's most devoutly loony fellow Talmud scholar, Yossef (Uri Ran Klausner). Predictably, she's really in love with the hunky Yaakov (Sami Hori), who's been rejected by the congregation for joining the Israeli army and now makes his way as a nightclub singer.

Meir's rabbi father pressures him into leaving guilt-ridden Rivka for a younger, presumably more fertile wife. Spunky Malka, meanwhile, gets to experience what is surely the worst sex ever filmed.

Can any of this possibly be what God intended?

Director Amos Gitai clearly does not think so, and his general distaste for the perceivably sexist subculture permeates ``Kadosh.'' He takes every opportunity to present the Hasidim as backward, paranoid and coercive.

Not surprisingly, Gitai's own family was involved in founding Israel's Labor party. The prejudices the director brings to the material might be more forgivable if he hadn't presented them with such glacial solemnity. Most shots are twice as long as they need to be, and if this is meant to evoke the kind of suspended-in-time lives the characters lead, it does so to a fault. What is of interest in ``Kadosh'' just takes too much time to get at, and film audiences cannot be expected to have the patience of lifelong biblical scholars.

The facts

--The film: ``Kadosh'' (NR; sex, violence).

--The stars: Yael Abecassis, Yoram Hattab, Meital Barda, Uri Ran Klausner, Sami Hori.

--Behind the scenes: Directed by Amos Gitai. Written by Gitai, Eliette Abecassis and Jacky Cukier. Produced by Laurent Truchot. Released by Truchot. Released by Kino International.

--Running time: One hour, 50 minutes.

--Playing: Town Center 5, Encino; Music Hall, Beverly Hills.

--Our rating: Two and one half stars.