In the Tokyo International Film Festival competition section with “Tel Aviv/Beirut”, Michel Boganim (“Odessa, Odessa”, “Land of Oblivion”) directed a historical drama set against the backdrop of the Israeli-Lebanese conflict in 1982 and 2006. The film is set in northern Israel, The film tells the journey of two families on each side of the border whose fates are intertwined due to the ongoing war in Lebanon. In particular, it sheds light on the little-known story of the Lebanese who cooperated with the Israeli army to fight Hezbollah. She spoke to Variety about her work.
Why choose this topic and why are you telling this piece of recent history now?
I have experienced war myself. I was very shocked by that. Also, because my father went through war, I began to realize that this war is transgenerational. He can repeat and repeat and repeat.
Then I discovered the story of this Lebanese people during my stay in Israel. By chance I went to a restaurant in northern Israel at that time and started asking these people questions. They told me their stories. I did not know about these Lebanese who fled Lebanon because they cooperated with Israel.
In the first half of your movie, people cross boundaries all the time. This sounds very fluid, but from the year 2000 onwards you make it clear that only the dead can cross the border.
When there was no war, when there was peace, they closed the borders instead of opening them. It is very paradoxical that the borders only open when there is war.
You shot during the pandemic and did not shoot in Israel, but used Cyprus instead. Was this a deliberate choice?
It was a choice because it was the only way for me to be able to bring together Israelis and independent actors. This may be the first time in history that Lebanese and Israeli actors work together. I cannot go to Lebanon because I am Israeli.
One of the main actors was living in Paris, so that was easy. Some were living in Cyprus, because there is a large Lebanese community in Cyprus that fled the war.
She has done documentaries before, including one in part of East Asia, Macau.
This was a documentary I made for Arte. Basically, it was a day in Macau from morning to morning. To find out the different aspects, I have been following different personalities. I found the city diametrically opposed and diametrically opposed to the religious aspects and the utterly corrupt side with casinos and prostitution. I was very fortunate to have been able to shoot inside the biggest casino and even meet some people from the threes.
How does your work transition between documentaries and fiction?
I think they are all influenced by each other. If you see [documentary] “Odessa, Odessa” is all very theatrical and very written. All my fiction films are based on true stories. I also made a movie about Chernobyl. I always like to go with political and nonfiction stories and mix fact and fiction. There is not much difference. Just when you tell the producer that you’re making up the imagination, they put 40 people in huge, gigantic trucks. When you do a documentary, five people. Macau is very cinematic and we only did it with five people.
Have you been under any pressure either from distributors or from producers to try to take a certain angle? To be more impartial? Or to be less neutral and take a political position?
No, but I was trying myself too. I don’t know if this is the right choice. [As audiences] We often expect the movie to take a side. But in this film, there is no side, there are only victims.
I don’t think it’s right to grab a position like that because for many people in the military, that’s not really their choice. The state is made this way and they are victims of it too. And when you have a son, a soldier dies, that’s also sad. is not it? They are young. They are 18 years old. Sometimes this is not their decision. In the film the son signs because the effect system is such. He said if I didn’t serve in the army, I wouldn’t be considered a fugitive. I will lose my friends or I won’t be able to go back to the country.
What are you working on next?
I’m trying to shoot a movie in New York about the Orthodox community. It’s a fictional hypothesis, but it was based on real people. I have met a lot of people out there in this world. They left the Orthodox community and created an entire community of “ex-Orthodox”.
I also have a project in Poland about women. It is the story of the women who were in prison during Solidarnosc [Solidarity] Period in Gdansk, there were a lot of abuses inside this prison by the Russians. You see the brutality of the Russians, how they treated people even at that time.
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