ITALY: Israeli director Amos Gitai's "Ana Arabia" is a "private bomb against all the bombs"

Record ID: 189233

  • Title: ITALY: Israeli director Amos Gitai's "Ana Arabia" is a "private bomb against all the bombs"
  • Date: 4th September 2013
  • Summary: VENICE, ITALY (SEPTEMBER 4, 2013) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF DIRECTOR AMOS GITAI POSING FOR PHOTOGRAPHER GITAI ARRIVING FOR INTERVIEW (SOUNDBITE) (English) DIRECTOR AMOS GITAI SAYING: "We were researching for a story which would be our private bomb against all these bombs and our private bomb is composed of a tissue of co-existence. It is almost a bad word, to try and talk about co-existence and trying to find a way to live together but it's a necessary one." VARIOUS OF GITAI IN INTERVIEW (SOUNDBITE) (English) DIRECTOR AMOS GITAI SAYING: "The meaning, of course, you ask, what is the meaning of this, the meaning is that we have, it's really a story of Jews, Arabs, Palestinians, Israelis and I think that my personal question to this very bloody Middle East, very savage and brutal Middle East is that we can instal relations of people from different origins, different beliefs, even not agreeing with each other necessarily but we don't need to cut and so Ana Arabia shot in one shot means that we cannot cut." VARIOUS OF ACTRESS YUVAL SCHARF IN INTERVIEW (SOUNDBITE) (English) ACTRESS YUVAL SCHARF SAYING: "We shot in Jaffa which is five minutes from my house with bicycles. That's our lives, you know, we are living together. It's hard but we can do it but a lot people make it harder. The little people want peace and that's what we are trying to say in this movie."
  • Embargoed: 19th September 2013 13:00
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  • Location: Italy
  • Country: Italy
  • Reuters ID: LVABNZNOSRD5RCZBR51D0FB4KM1E
  • Story Text: Veteran director Amos Gitai describes his latest movie "Ana Arabia" as a "high risk project".
    The movie transports viewers to a moment of life in a small community where Jews and Arabs live together in a forgotten enclave between Jaffa and Bat Yam, Israel.
    The story of a woman born in Auschwitz who converted to Islam and spent her life in the community attracts Yael, a young journalist to the now run-down site. Yael senses the inhabitants may lend for a good story for her publication. Her hunch proves right as she discovers the people in the community are able to transcend common clich� of the region and co-exist peacefully.
    Speaking to Reuters Television in Venice where the film is screening in competition, Gitai said his inspiration for the movie had come from a true-life story.
    He said he had read of a a woman in a Palestinian village who went to see her doctor and was asked if she had been malnourished when she was a child. When the woman gets upset the doctor defends himself saying it is a medical issue and could be the reason she has had problems with her bones. The woman then answers that she was born in Auschwitz.
    Gitai said he had immediately felt that the story of the woman born in Auschwitz, of Jewish origin and living her life in an Arab village would make for a great film about co-existence and dialogue amidst the "craziness of the Middle East".
    "We were researching for a story which would be our private bomb against all these bombs and our private bomb is composed of a tissue of co-existence. It is almost a bad word, to try and talk about co-existence and trying to find a way to live together but it's a necessary one," Gitai said.
    What made the project high risk for Gitai was his decision to shoot the film in a one sequence shot.
    As a result, his is a film of 81 minutes filmed in one shot without any cuts.
    "The meaning, of course, you ask, what is the meaning of this, the meaning is that we have, it's really a story of Jews, Arabs, Palestinians, Israelis and I think that my personal question to this very bloody Middle East, very savage and brutal Middle East is that we can instal relations of people from different origins, different beliefs, even not agreeing with each other necessarily but we don't need to cut and so Ana Arabia shot in one shot means that we cannot cut," he said.
    According to the director the final film is the last of ten attempts, a take which finally captured a "grace in the rhythm" he had been searching.
    The form of shooting did not make things easy for Gitai's young lead, actress Yuval Scharf.
    Scharf said she had had to memorise all the characters' lines by heart while also leading a choreographed web of movements within the community. To get her head around it, she had approached her part as a theatre rehearsal, she said.
    The film's theme hit close to home for the young actress.
    "We shot in Jaffa which is five minutes from my house with bicycles. That's our lives, you know, we are living together. It's hard but we can do it but a lot people make it harder. The little people want peace and that's what we are trying to say in this movie," she said.
    "Ana Arabia" is one of 20 new films vying for the prestigious Golden Lion at the 70th annual festival which runs through Saturday (September 7).
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