World Cinema: Israel’s master of mise en scene

Dan Wolman, veteran Israeli filmmaker, is the master of mise en scene. His films, noted for their depiction of the struggle between the individual and the society, have been presented in Cannes, Venice, Berlin, Shanghai, Goa, Moscow and many other film festivals.

 

Born in Jerusalem, Wolman spent the first years of his life in Ethiopia. After finishing high school in Jerusalem, he studied film in the US at the Film Institute of City College (1962 to 1965) and at New York University film department (1965-1968). In 1968, he returned to Israel and shot his first feature, The Dreamer, (released in 1970) a psychological film about a young man working at an old age home. 

Over the years, Wolman has written and directed close to 20 features, many short films and documentaries.

 

In his films, Wolman portrays the struggles of individuals who dare to break with the norm against society for self-determination. His first two features, The Dreamer and Floch, deal with the plight of the elderly. In My Michael, a screen adaptation of Amos Oz’s famous novel, Wolman highlights the dreariness and loneliness in the lives of women. Two of his films, Hide and Seek and Tied Hands, examine homosexuality.

 

Wolman’s felicity with the medium is evident in films across genres — from a commercial youth comedy like Lemon Popsicle to the very personal The Distance and Foreign Sister, both of which won the Volgin Award for “Best Film” at the Jerusalem International Film Festival. Like Foreign Sister, Ben’s Biography expresses Wolman’s empathy and compassion for the weak and the suffering.

 

Wolman was in New Delhi recently for the screening of his film, An Israeli Love Story (2016), at the first Habitat International Film Festival. The film, set during the turbulent period of pre-state Israel in 1947-1948, is based on the true story of the love affair between Pnina Gary and Eli Ben-Zvi, the son of Rachel Yanait and Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, the second President of Israel.

 

NAWAID ANJUM: How do you see yourself as a filmmaker? What aspects of the medium fascinate you?

DAN WOLMAN: I’m basically a storyteller. My fascination with storytelling started when I was a teenager.  I was selected by the  "Israeli Scout Federations"  to be the counsellor of a group of 10-year-olds. I was fascinated by this art form and whenever I met them, which was like twice a week, I used to tell them a short story. I used to love playing roles and doing the effects… It also made me read a lot — stories by Anton Chekov, O. Henry, Guy de Maupassant, Rabindranath Tagore and many others. In Jerusalem, there were two blind boys in one of my groups and it was interesting and challenging to get them to envision my story. In a strange way — it was like making a film… I also like theatre and I enjoy working in it, but, for me, film is the most powerful way of storytelling.

NAWAID ANJUM: Tell us something about your early influences. How much of the different cultures and sensibilities seeped into your work?

DAN WOLMAN: When I was born, we were under the British rule. My father was in the Army and I didn’t get to see him much. My father’s absence affected me. I was brought to Ethiopia and I think that I was confused by the different  languages  — my mother spoke to me in German, some elders around me spoke English and Italian and my nanny spoke to me in Amharic (an Ethiopian Semitic language). So, for the first years of my life, I was exposed to a mixed salad of different languages and music — Ethiopian, English, Italian, German. Maybe, the fact that I feel at home only when I’m not at home, has to do with this salad which was my childhood.

Later, when we returned to Palestine in 1945, I started learning Hebrew. I was confused. I was not good in studies, my head was always somewhere else and I didn’t like to go by the rules. This gets reflected in my films too.

NAWAID ANJUM: When you made your first film, you were 26. What made you choose the subject — the complexities of old age — for The Dreamer, a sensitively directed film which was lauded for breaking new ground in Israeli cinema?

DAN WOLMAN: I was very uncomfortable with people in general and especially with  people my age. When I was young, my personality was completely opposite to what you'd expect a director to be. I was shy. If somebody shook my hand, I would sweat. If I met strangers, I could hardly breathe. It took me a long time to get over it. I think this was one of the reasons my first films deal with old people.

It's funny, when the film finally came out in 1970 in Israel, people hated it. It ran for about two weeks and taken off the screens. I was shattered. But then, quite unexpectedly, it was selected to the competition section at Cannes Film Festival. Later, it did very well at Carnegie Hall cinema in New York and other places.

The second film, Floch (1972) was about an ageing couple whose son, daughter-in-law and child die in an accident. The old man’s wife is too old to bear a child, but he wants to have somebody to call after his name and starts looking for a young wife. It’s very much like a Greek tragedy. At that time I wrote and made these films without understanding where psychologically they came from — today I can analyse and speak about it — I guess the fact that fate has decided that the lead in my first two films will not have children — reflected my own fears then…

NAWAID ANJUM: You were also a pioneer in making films on homosexuality in Israel, and later even a horror film, in Israel. Tell us about how you shift between genres and how vital it is to your journey.

DAN WOLMAN: The horror film is very much like my first film. This is about a psychopath, who is not accepted in the Army and, therefore, he starts killing soldiers. He believes that by killing the soldiers he becomes one of them himself. It took me about three years to make this film. Because I made it with no money, I shot it sporadically. I like thrillers and horror films because they are to my mind more cinematic and rely more on the visual and less like so many television films, on dialogue.

I’m a product of my period and I still admire the films I admired in my youth. I like Akira Kurosawa, Vittorio De Sica, Federico Fellini, Roberto Rossellini, François Truffaut and all other masters of that time. I saw and loved many of Satyajit Ray films. I met him at the Berlin film festival in the early 70's.

NAWAID ANJUM: How does what happens around you affect you as an artiste?

DAN WOLMAN: I live in a place that is in constant conflict and struggle. One cannot ignore it. I love my country and I’m proud of the tribe that I belong to. I’m not a religious person — but I like the Bible, it's wealth of poetry and myth — and I am very much moved by the prophets who on the one hand were very critical of corruption and injustice, but on the other, were full of compassion and sensitive to other people’s sufferings.

I like short films too —  I was here in New Delhi with my wife a decade ago to participate in a film festival and the organizers had me stay at the Imperial hotel —  a very colonial hotel. The morning after we arrived, I walked out to the street and decided that I have to make a film. I called it Bed to Bed, a one shot, two-and-a-half-minutes film. It starts with my bed in the hotel then going through the majestic lobby and out to the street where I tilted down to show an almost naked person sleeping on the sidewalk.

NAWAID ANJUM: How interested are you in the techniques of filmmaking?

DAN WOLMAN: As a director, I’m mainly interested in the story. Obviously the more you know technically the more you know what to ask for from the people around you. So — I am always trying to learn also about the technical aspect.

I don’t like to work with people who are temperamental even if they’re very talented. It has to do with my personality — when I start arguing on the set — it intimidates me and to my mind is a waste of time. I don’t like storyboards. I want to be alive on the set. I want to be flexible to do what I feel is right at that moment.

NAWAID ANJUM: In terms of distribution, how easier it is now to reach out to the right kind of audience world over?

DAN WOLMAN: Shooting a film now is much easier than it was when I was young. But competition is much harder.

In 1972, when I submitted my film Floch to the Venice Film Festival, it was among 300 films that were submitted. It was accepted as one of the final 16 films in competition. Today, Venice festival receives over 2,000 films every year and they still have to select 16-18 films, if not less, for competition.

In Israel, with its population of 8 million, it's very hard to re-coup his investment. Most of the money for films doesn’t come from private investor. It comes from film foundations by the government and from television. They treat cinema as an art form and encourage the public to support it. There is a big revolution now in Israel. There are many young talented directors (many of which are women) and many good films are being made.

NAWAID ANJUM: Could you name some of the contemporary ones?

DAN WOLMAN: Last year, Elite Zexer made a film called Sand Storm. It won the best film in Sundance, Berlin and other film festivals.

In 2012, Rama Burshtein made a film called Fill The Void which went to the Venice film festival and won "Best Actress" Award there. This year, she has Through The Wall which was also shown in Venice. Keren Yedayah Made a film called Or (My Treasure) which won the  Caméra d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. And there are many others.

 

NAWAID ANJUM: Today, some of the small-budget films are making a big mark. We have many directors in India who are interested in doing such content-driven films. How is the scene in Israel?

DAN WOLMAN: It’s different in both our countries. Here, the power of commercial cinema is great, but at the same time many young talented people who are making interesting and good films, have no outlet for their films. There are no cinemas or other venues they can show them or get their money back.  In Israel, TV stations are forced by the government to support the filmmakers — invest in feature films and broadcast them after they finish regular distribution.

NAWAID ANJUM: Tell us about your film on India. Are you still working on it?

DAN WOLMAN: I like India and care for it. I have many friends here. I have a story that I developed after something that happened here in India not long ago. I don't want to speak about it too much. I am now looking for backers for the film. I hope to shoot it soon.