Of all the theatrical professions, only actresses were truly partners in the enterprise of reviving Hebrew culture in the early twentieth century, and only in the 1980s did women writers and directors begin to work in Israeli theater. In the last few decades of the twentieth century and the first few decades of the twenty first, howeverwomen playwrights and directors have taken on increasingly prominent roles.

Israeli filmmaking is a national cultural expression, and female Israeli directors have become major contributors to that expression. In their films, these directors deal with personal relationships and family conflicts, religious and professional issues, and the effects of the Holocaust on survivors and their descendants.

Director, scriptwriter, and actress of stage and screen Michal Bat-Adam has been hailed for her sensitive and nuanced portrayals of mental illness and women’s inner lives. The interweaving of past and present, fiction and reality, memory and its creative representation are hallmarks of Bat Adam’s work.