Mrs. Goldstein / Video / 2002

At the center of the “Mrs. Goldstein” video by Avi Mograbi is a series of auditions. Three actresses take their turn sitting at a table, facing a camera, auditioning for the role of Miriam Goldstein, the widow of Baruch Goldstein, the perpetrator of the Cave of the Patriarchs massacre.

The cinematic frame of the audition identically resembles that of giving testimony: talking heads. The moment they speak, we are submerged in the accepted lie: that the image before us is bonafide truth. However, the truth Mograbi presents us with is threefold: three Miriam Goldsteins, akin to the Moirae, interchangeable. One is restrained, the other flirtatious, and a third angry. Each acquires and takes on the possibilities of Mrs. Goldstein, breathing different life into it, rolling words off her tongue over and over per director’s cues. He directs them to the absurd demand of the widow to receive her husband’s gun, claiming it now belongs to her.