I don't know how long a book this film was based on, but the filmmakers certainly hurried through a great deal of material. Things happen quickly and minimal time, or less than minimal, is spent dwelling on how the characters' relationships and mutual attitudes develop. But before we have time to think much about that, the plot speeds onward. It involves the great Israeli issue of the strictly religious lifestyle versus the permissive liberal lifestyle, and that issue-- as such-- is among the matters it doesn't spend time explaining. But while following the melodramatic story of love and feuding and abandonment and adultery and so on, the audience (at least the Israeli audience) may be held in suspense over which side of the religious-versus-permissive divide the film will ultimately tilt to.