As the Cannes Film Festival increasingly sidelines Israeli cinema, its counterpart in Venice continues to honor Hebrew filmmaking. At the 81st Venice Film Festival, which opens on Wednesday, two Israeli films inspired by the events of October 7 will be showcased.
The first film, On Dogs and Men, directed by Dani Rosenberg (The Death of Cinema and My Father Too) and produced by Itai Tamir and Alexander Rodnyansky, was filmed at Kibbutz Nir Oz and along the Gaza border just a month after the deadly Hamas attack. The film will compete in the Orizzonti section, the festival's second most prestigious category.
The story centers on 16-year-old Dar (played by Ori Avinoam), who returns to her home in Kibbutz Nir Oz to search for her dog, lost during the October 7 massacre. The cast includes residents of the kibbutz, including veteran member Natan Bahat, Yamit Avital and Nora Lifshitz, who rescued animals in the area starting from October 8.
"Being given the central stage in Venice carries immense weight for all of us involved in the film. With this honor comes the responsibility to echo the tragedy depicted and ensure that it continues to be told worldwide," Rosenberg told Ynetnews.
In a press release following the film's acceptance into the world’s second-most prestigious film festival, Rosenberg said, "The horrific atrocities, the killing of innocents and the suffering are unimaginable. The loss of humanity is chilling. This raises the question: Can these events even be represented, be told? And beyond that, how can we speak of a future emerging from the destruction, without imposing our viewpoint on reality? We embarked on filming with this question, aware that cinema had collided with the harsh reality."
"From almost the very beginning, it was clear to us that during such a time of turmoil and suffering, it was not appropriate to create fictional characters or artificial sets. Instead, we needed to stay true to reality itself. This led me to focus on the people who are an integral part of the locations and narrative, filming only in the actual settings where the story unfolds and working entirely through improvisation, ensuring that no words were scripted for the characters.
"We began filming in early November, traveling in a single vehicle with the entire crew and actress Ori Avinoam. Our choice to film with a small crew and lightweight camera also supports the blending of narrative cinema and documentary realism, blurring the line between the fictional nature of life and the reality of imagination."
Noa Regev, CEO of the Israel Film Fund (one of the supporters of Of Dogs and Men), added, "This is an emotional and eye-opening work that captures the incomprehensible present while drawing from the rich heritage of cinematic art and redefining its future. The film, which walks the fine line between fiction and documentary, turns its gaze toward the moments of quiet after the storm, as the magnitude of the disaster begins to emerge. The film's protagonist seeks to find what was lost, and alongside the pain and destruction, she also encounters the goodness in humanity. This is a film that proves when the cannons roar, the muses must raise their voices."
The second film to be screened in Venice is Why War, the latest work by director Amos Gitai (Kadosh, Kippur). Gitai is a familiar face at the Venice Film Festival, with his films having competed in the main competition seven times.
Why War, which will be shown out of competition, is based on a correspondence between Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud. In the early 1930s, amid violent global crises and the rise of the Nazi Party in Germany, the League of Nations (the precursor to the United Nations) asked the two Jewish geniuses to address questions such as whether mass violence is inevitable, whether human nature compels people to engage in murderous campaigns in the name of religion, nationality or race, and to offer a better understanding of the sources of war and the possibility of preventing it. The responses of the two thinkers were compiled into the book Why War.
"In the wake of October 7 and the war in Gaza, and the horrors we were exposed to, I began reading texts that explore why the sophisticated animals known as humans wage war. I then came across the remarkable text of Why War and saw that even a hundred years ago, Einstein and Freud were grappling with this question, trying to understand the human psyche," Gitai told Ynetnews.
"I decided to base my new film on this text, as well as on Susan Sontag's essay Regarding the Pain of Others, which questions what it does to us to constantly witness images of war. Do these images not prompt us to start the next war? I reached out to French actors I love to converse with and invited them to come to Israel to participate in the filming—and to my delight, they agreed, despite the cultural boycott of Israel."
Gitai expressed his happiness at being accepted into his beloved festival, especially during such a challenging time. "Alberto Barbera, the festival's artistic director, told me he was very impressed by the film and immediately invited it to Venice. Alberto said the film is moving, and it was impossible not to include it in such a difficult year."
Why War was filmed in Tel Aviv, Paris, Vienna, and Berlin, and was produced by Agav Productions, in collaboration with United King Films. The film features French stars Mathieu Amalric, Irène Jacob (who also appeared in Gitai's previous film A Tramway in Jerusalem) and Michel Lonsdale, alongside Israeli actors Keren Mor and Yael Abecassis.
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is also a focus of September 5, a Hollywood production (with Sean Penn among the producers) that will open the Orizzonti Extra sidebar. The film is a fictional portrayal of the tragedy of the Munich 1972 Olympics massacre, told from the perspective of an American broadcast team. The crew, covering the Olympic sports events, suddenly finds themselves reporting on the Israeli hostage crisis. The film stars Peter Sarsgaard (who won the Best Actor award at Venice last year for Memory), Ben Chaplin, and John Magaro.
Last year, the Venice Film Festival—celebrating its 80th edition—was significantly affected by the Hollywood actors' strike. But this year, the film capital will be in full force at the Lido, with an impressive influx of talent from Los Angeles.
In recent years, Venice has become a launchpad for the Oscar race, and this year, the intensity will be even higher. The festival will open with the horror-comedy and ghost sequel Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, Tim Burton's follow-up to his 1988 cult classic. The film stars original cast members Michael Keaton and Winona Ryder, alongside rising star Jenna Ortega (Wednesday), Willem Dafoe and Monica Bellucci, who will thrill the local audience.
The main competition will feature several representatives from Hollywood’s galaxy of stars. Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga will compete with the sequel Joker: Folie à Deux, based on DC Comics' Joker character, while Daniel Craig, the former James Bond, will likely surprise with Queer by director Luca Guadagnino (Call Me by Your Name), based on the novella by William S. Burroughs, which draws from personal experiences. The plot centers on an American writer who is a gay man living in Mexico, grappling with his heroin addiction—a role quite the opposite of 007.
Jude Law, Tye Sheridan and Nicholas Hoult will star in the thriller The Order. Nicole Kidman will compete for the Best Actress award with Baby Girl, facing off against Angelina Jolie, who is expected to stir emotions with Maria, where she portrays opera diva Maria Callas.
Brad Pitt, Jolie's ex-husband, will also land in Venice with Wolves, and his summit meeting with George Clooney about two fixers hired for the same mission. The film will be shown outside the main competition. Pitt has another film in the festival—he's credited as a producer on Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.
Jolie and Pitt are currently embroiled in an ugly legal battle over a shared vineyard worth tens of millions in southern France. Jolie recently sought to "end the war" so that "their family could heal." However, Pitt is refusing to back down and insists on not withdrawing his multimillion-dollar lawsuit. It's likely that the festival organizers will keep the feuding exes' films spaced apart to avoid a tense and stormy encounter at the Lido.
Pedro Almodóvar will try to win the Golden Lion with his first full-length English-language film, The Room Next Door, starring Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton. As usual with the Spanish genius, the film deals with mother-daughter relationships.
The jury will be headed by the eternal French star Isabelle Huppert, alongside other impressive names including Chinese superstar Zhang Ziyi (Memoirs of a Geisha) and directors James Gray, Agnieszka Holland, Giuseppe Tornatore (Cinema Paradiso) and Andrew Haigh (All of Us Strangers).
One certain winner already is Hollywood star Sigourney Weaver (Alien, Avatar), who will receive a Lifetime Achievement Award—a wonderful gift for her 75th birthday. "Sigourney moves seamlessly between art-house and commercial cinema while always remaining true to herself," explained Barbera in awarding Weaver. "She possesses a charismatic presence and exceptional temperament, able to move with grace yet without fragility, creating portrayals of women who are confident, dynamic and determined."
First published: 04:13, 08.24.24