AllMovie

Filmmaker Anat Yuta Zuria examines the role of women inside and outside contemporary Israel's ultra-Orthodox community in this documentary. Sara Einfeld is a writer and Shulamit Weinfeld is a photographer who is studying law; they're close friends in their early twenties outwardly seem like ordinary women who could be living in the creative community of any major city. But Sara and Shulamit share a painful legacy; they were both born and raised in Jerusalem by families in the Orthodox Haredi community, where the sexes are often segregated in a bid to promote chastity and purity of thought and women are treated as second class citizens (for example, they're ordered to ride on the back of the bus to avoid contact with men). Both Sara and Shulamit refused to submit to the strictures of Haredi life and paid the price -- they were cast out by their families and have been forced to start their lives over without the support of their parents or relations. Shulamit uses her camera to record the daily lives of women living in the shadow of the growing Haredi colony, while Sarah has a blog in which she shares her experiences as an outcast. Soreret (aka Black Bus) follows these two young women as they live their new lives and try to come to terms with a society that cannot accept them as they are. Originally produced for Israeli television, Black Bus was an official selection at the 2010 Berlin International Film Festival.