Israeli director, writer, actor Assi Dayan laid to rest
Son of former IDF chief and defense minister Moshe Dayan laid to rest in home community of Nahlal as artists and friends equalize man considered a tormented genius.
'Life is a chronic disease with 100% mortality rate' - Assi Dayan
Friends and family said their final farewell to Israeli icon Assi Dayan who passed away Thursday morning after years of battling medical problems and drug addiction. He was 68 and is survived by his mother, Ruth, two siblings, Yael and Udi, and four children, Amalia, Avner, Lior and Assia.
A prolific writer, director and actor, Dayan, the son of former defense minister and IDF chief of staff Moshe Dayan, was laid to rest in Moshav Nahlal, not far from the grave of his father, a man whose legacy could not differ more than his own.
"My dad used to say that he is first and foremost a poet, so I will read a song he wrote on November 24 , 2009, a day after his birthday," Dayan's son Lior eulogized.
"The dry desert of anonymity, is spread out like a giant sheet, and the horizon is found in its edge as if you are moving on the corner of the bed, upon it you move until you lay alone and rest in your cradle which awaited you since birth. There there is no chance someone will awake you."
During the ceremony, actor, musician and close friend Naftali Alter played songs from Dayan's films as well as song written by Dayan himself – including 'Rest your head on a dune' from the Israeli classic 'Halfon Hill does not respond' - Dana Vishinsky performed the 'the frecha (bimbo) song' which was first performed in his film 'Schlager'.
"It's so sad to say goodbye from Assi," actor and comedian Rivkah Michaeli said, "When they asked me who Assi was, I said he was an anarchist before the term was invented, he represented subversive and underground culture before anyone knew such a culture existed."
Before the ceremony, Dayan's body was placed at Tel Aviv Cinematheque, were an informal ceremony was also held and was attended by hundreds. "Assi eulogized himself from all directions," former Knesset member and Dayan's sister, Yael Dayan said.
"I am happy there isn't too much focus on the tabloid-worthy aspects of his life," she said, referencing his drug abuse problem and self-described "wild" sex life, "because it is irrelevant, and does not matter what motivates a person to create art, even if he needs chemical assistance. There is no judgment here. Only loss."
"I haven't come to terms with this yet, my baby's gone," Dayan's mother Ruth said when she left his home on Thursday. "It's not the age in which parents need to bury their son."
"He really was magnifying, it was fun to be around him," Shaike Levi, of the Gashash HaHiver comedy trio, said. "In cinema, it was very easy to work with him. He understood things because he was an actor himself. I come here today feeling everyone in the country should come here - we lost the beautiful Israeli, the ultimate Israeli. It's symbolic that Assi died so close to Independence Day."
Life as a rumor
The New York Time obituary for Dayan, aptly ended with the monologue which opened his autobiographical three part documentary Life as a Rumor: “My name is Assi, Assi Dayan. At 65 I am making another movie. My body is collapsing from all the cigarettes, chemicals and material fatigue. I weigh 130 kilograms. My heart has been through an attack.
"I think I’ve lived enough for most people. It’s time to summarize, to take stock. So here it is: There are 80 movies I’ve acted in, 16 I’ve written and directed, nine Oscars” - a reference to the Ofir Prize, the Israeli equvilent of the Oscars - “three lifetime achievement awards, and besides that, thousands of newspaper articles, one novel, three books of poetry, three and a half years in psychiatric wards, three suicide attempts, two arrests, three wars, four weddings, four children, but before everything, and before God, one father, with one eye."
