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TonightFilm

MONDAY NOVEMBER 4 2013

Issues and conflict in Israeli film
SNAILS IN THE RAIN

As part of the Cape
Winelands Film Festival,
two leading Israeli film
directors are coming to
South Africa to talk about
their films: Yariv Mozer
with Snails in the Rain
and The Invisible Men
and Shelley Hermon with
Within the Eye of the
Storm. In addition to their
screenings in Cape Town,
the films will also be
screened in Gauteng in
the presence of the
directors. DIANE DE BEER
spoke (via Skype) to the
two directors before
they left Tel Aviv.
S A gay man himself,
filmmaker Yariv Mozer
was astonished when
he first discovered the
premise with which his documentary The Invisible Men deals.
It tells about gay Palestinian men
who have to flee from their homes
because their families want to kill
them, find refuge in Tel Aviv, but
are picked up by the police and –
because they’re Palestinian – are
sent back home where they might
be killed.
“It’s a story that wasn’t being
told,” says Mozer about this bizarre
life these men find themselves
living.
The subject of his documentary
,
a Palestinian gay man, Louie, had
been living this underground life
being sent back many times, for 10
years. His only choice was to ask for
asylum, but then he had no say over
the outcome or choice of country
.
“We might see another country
as a happy ending, but it often
isn’t,” says Mozer. These men are
sent to countries with different
cultures and climates to what
they’re used to and it is tough
to assimilate.
For Mozer it was important
to tell the story Not even the gay
.
community in the cosmopolitan
and free-thinking Tel Aviv was
aware of this. It’s also not something that will be resolved because
from an Israeli point of view, it is
a security as well as a political
issue.
As Louie poignantly points out
in the documentary people with
,
much less attachment to the land
are allowed to work there, but he
has to leave. It’s an extraordinary
tale of harshness in a world where
life is already excruciating for so
many
.
Mozer’s second contribution is
the fictional Snails in the Rain
which also deals with people in the
closet based on a short story that
was published in the late Eighties.
“It’s a period piece,” he explains.
“It’s the story of a man who lives
with his girlfriend and starts
receiving love letters from another
man. It breaks open the relationships as everyone involved has to
come to terms with their lives and
who they are.
Telling his stories to the
world, whether fact or fiction, is
important, says Mozer. “People have
to hear different voices from this
country I’m not a spokesperson for
.
the government, I have my own way
of thinking and how the dilemmas

A

WITHIN THE EYE OF THE STORM

in our country should be resolved.”
He believes their cinema is
flourishing because of government
sponsorship which comes with the
right of no censorship. This allows
him to tell his stories freely and get
yet another voice out there.
IFFERENT voices are
also important to Shelley
Hermon which becomes very
clear in her documentary Within the
Eye of the Storm. She was Israeliborn but grew up in London and
only returned in her thirties.
But the issue of conflict was
always part of her being and she
knew she wanted to do something
about it.
For her the conflict has much
more to do with the psychology
of the groups involved than the
practicalities of the process, and
that’s where her focus lies.

D

She wanted to include both sides
– the Israelis and the Palestinians –
to get the real story
.
“I’ve always had a strong desire
to do something,” she says.
Because of her own sense of
belonging, which drew her back,
she has always been attracted to
issues of identity and longing.
Returning to Israel, she had
distance and she could smell the
fear on the pavements.
“I grew up more liberally knew
,
Arabs and Palestinians, and had
never had problems.”
But here, most people from
the Palestinian side would for
example only know Israeli soldiers
or security personnel while the
Israelis were also familiar with
the more extreme side, those they
would label terrorists.
“It’s that fear of the other side,”
Hermon says.

The way she grew up meant that
she saw things very differently “I
.
love my country but I also believe
Palestinians should have their
freedom. I don’t think those two
things are mutually exclusive.”
Her documentary tells the story
of two men, one an Israeli and the
other a Palestinian, who are part of
a group called Combatants for
Peace who have as their goal
communication between the two
sides. “The had to put down their
weapons and talk,” says Hermon.
Bassam Aramin and Rami
Elhanan were two members who
stood out immediately
.
“I found their story fascinating
and courageous and a unique angle
through which to explore this
traumatised society she says.
,”
Both men had lost young
daughters in the continuing war
but their fight was about justice,

not revenge.
“We have to deal with the
wounds,” she says. But she believes
these men show a different way
and part of her mission is to get
the word out there.
“The impact is growing,” she
believes.
It’s about giving a platform to
positive role models in a territory
where most people have a very
dark vision.
“We need that crack in the
wall, we need to approach things
differently and those with different
voices have to be heard,” she pleads.
This is exactly what these films
give you – different voices that bring
insight and sometimes hope.
See CTWIFF’s Facebook page
or log on to www.films-forAfrica.co.za for screening and
booking information.

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