Family clash of ideals

Philosophy and religion become entangled with love and sex in Karin Albou’s intelligent, sensual drama “La Petite Jerusalem.” Set in a rundown, predominately Jewish neighborhood in suburban Paris, the film follows the path of a passionate young philosophy student as she attempts to wall off her heart, using Immanuel Kant as the gatekeeper.

Laura (Fanny Valette) lives in an apartment with her extended Tunisian Jewish emigre family of eight but longs to move to a studio in the city. She studies by day and works as a custodian at a school in the evenings where she meets a coworker, Djamel (Hedi Tillette de Clermont-Tonerre), an Algerian former journalist in France illegally.

Laura’s household is a battleground of ideals as her embrace of reason offends the devout orthodoxy of her sister Mathilde (Elsa Zylberstein) and brother-in-law Ariel (Bruno Todeschini). Their widowed mother (Sonia Tahar) contributes North African superstitions -- she tells Laura that if she writes a letter to a man or gives him her photo, he will cast a spell on her.

The philosophy tracts Laura memorizes lead her to believe that love itself is a superstition of sorts and that personal freedom lies in one’s respect for the law. Which law to respect becomes the question of the film. Her devotion to Kant’s regimen -- including a long walk at precisely the same time each day -- is no match for the confusion she feels in her attraction to Djamel.

Mathilde’s beliefs are similarly challenged when she is forced to question the constraints she has placed on herself as a Jewish woman and wife. The discoveries each sister makes about herself clears the path to true autonomy. Valette and Zylberstein portray ideological and temperamental counterpoints, but the sincerity of the performances make their sympathetic relationship ultimately credible.

In her feature debut, Albou avoids didacticism, allowing the clash of ideas to play out unfettered. The grand ideas are effectively integrated into a drama that relies equally upon the head, the heart and the body for inspiration. Even when “La Petite Jerusalem” appears to be headed toward melodrama, Albou carefully reins it in, producing an ending that is satisfyingly open-minded.

*

‘La Petite Jerusalem’

MPAA rating: Unrated

A Kino International release. Writer-director Karin Albou. Producers Laurent Lavole, Isabelle Pragier. Director of photography Laurent Brunet. Production designer Nicolas de Boiscuille. In French and Hebrew with English subtitles. Running time: 1 hour, 36 minutes.

At Laemmle’s Music Hall, 9036 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills, (310) 274-6869; and Laemmle’s Fallbrook 7, 6731 Fallbrook Ave., West Hills, (818) 340-8710.