CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
Menu
Research dossier · Arts & Letters

The Garden (1977 film)

1977 film

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJun 12, 2026
Entity authorityQ25205805
Source-derived summary

The Garden (Ha-Gan) is a 1977 Israeli drama film directed by Victor Nord, his first feature. It stars Shaike Ophir, Melanie Griffith, Zachi Noy, Sa'adia Damari, and Shoshana Duer. The film is about a wandering young woman (Griffith) who, after a sexual assault, stumbles upon an old man who faces eviction from his garden. The old man mistakes her for an angel.

The Garden was the official Israeli entry at the International Cannes Film festival (Les Yeux Fertiles section), 1977, San Francisco International Film festival, October 1977, and many other film forums.

Reception

Variety wrote:

"The Garden" is a beautiful film, a poem of sound and visual effects ...

Shai K. Ofir is moving in his portrayal of the pious old man, stubborn yet naive and sensitive. The dumb girl is played gracefully by American actress, Melanie Griffith".

(Victor Nord, the director) "proves to have a marvelous sense of beauty and works well with actors.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “The Garden (1977 film)” as 1977 film. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA useful identification and reception guide that helps separate the work itself from editions, performances, ownership and later interpretation. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1977—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1977. The account is most persuasive where Garden and film can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the arts & letters register because the source frames it as 1977 film. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 12, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q25205805. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1977.

Critical limits

Later fame can flatten the distinction between original context, subsequent adaptation and institutional collecting history. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “The Garden (1977 film)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow The Garden (1977 film) primary sources, The Garden (1977 film) archive and Garden research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “The Garden (1977 film)”?
  2. Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
  3. Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from The Garden (1977 film)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.