FEATURE FILM
Devarim
First part of the trilogy on cities, after the novel “Past Continuous” by Yaakov Shabtai. The film depicts the spiritual disarray of three men in their thirties and forties, in the agitation and turmoil of Tel Aviv, the city created by Jewish pioneers in 1909. None of them has the life he had imagined.
NOTE
Disenchantment… is the main theme of the film. Gitai’s characters no longer believe in anything. They are not angry, but they no longer understand anything about their own family history. They reject their own legacy. They are disenchanted. They hardly live at all, they merely survive. They meet, wait and hope their lives will pick up, that desire will once again foster desire. …Devarim is also the film of a generation that no longer respects the dead. And this disrespect, this derision, this nonchalance is also the political expression of disenchantment. It is as if the sons no longer believe in what passes for the essential values of the state of Israel, of its foundation: the respect for the pioneers, the feeling of affiliation with those who believed in the Zionist utopia.
Serge Toubiana, Cahiers du cinéma, 1995
FESTIVALS
• Biennale di Venezia/Mostra d’arte cinematografica 1995 – In competition
• London Film Festival 1995
• Edinburgh International Film Festival 1996
• Festival des 3 continents 1994 (Nantes) – Prix de la mise en scène
• Jerusalem Film Festival 1995
CREDITS
Screenplay Amos Gitai With the collaboration of Gilad Evron, Madi Levy
Based on Yakov Shabtai
Cinematography Renato Berta
Editing Zohar M. Sela
Sound Yohai Moshe
Music Uri Ofir
Production design Thierry François
Costumes Laura Dinulescu
Casting Ilan Moscovitch
Cast Assi Dayan, Amos Schub, Amos Gitai, Michal Zoharetz, Samuel Calderon, Riki Gal, Menahem Golan, David Cohen, Veronica Gotlieb, Sharon Hacohen, Dan Harden, Lea König, Azaria Rapaport, Galia Spring, Zvi Stolper, Shmuel Wolf
Production Agav Films (France), Mikado Films (Italy), TV1, The Israeli Quality Film Fund (Israel)
Producers Laurent Truchot, Roberto Cicutto
Line producer Shuki Friedman
First part of the trilogy on cities, after the novel “Past Continuous” by Yaakov Shabtai. The film depicts the spiritual disarray of three men in their thirties and forties, in the agitation and turmoil of Tel Aviv, the city created by Jewish pioneers in 1909. None of them has the life he had imagined.
NOTE
Disenchantment… is the main theme of the film. Gitai’s characters no longer believe in anything. They are not angry, but they no longer understand anything about their own family history. They reject their own legacy. They are disenchanted. They hardly live at all, they merely survive. They meet, wait and hope their lives will pick up, that desire will once again foster desire. …Devarim is also the film of a generation that no longer respects the dead. And this disrespect, this derision, this nonchalance is also the political expression of disenchantment. It is as if the sons no longer believe in what passes for the essential values of the state of Israel, of its foundation: the respect for the pioneers, the feeling of affiliation with those who believed in the Zionist utopia.
Serge Toubiana, Cahiers du cinéma, 1995
FESTIVALS
• Biennale di Venezia/Mostra d’arte cinematografica 1995 – In competition
• London Film Festival 1995
• Edinburgh International Film Festival 1996
• Festival des 3 continents 1994 (Nantes) – Prix de la mise en scène
• Jerusalem Film Festival 1995
CREDITS
Screenplay Amos Gitai With the collaboration of Gilad Evron, Madi Levy
Based on Yakov Shabtai
Cinematography Renato Berta
Editing Zohar M. Sela
Sound Yohai Moshe
Music Uri Ofir
Production design Thierry François
Costumes Laura Dinulescu
Casting Ilan Moscovitch
Cast Assi Dayan, Amos Schub, Amos Gitai, Michal Zoharetz, Samuel Calderon, Riki Gal, Menahem Golan, David Cohen, Veronica Gotlieb, Sharon Hacohen, Dan Harden, Lea König, Azaria Rapaport, Galia Spring, Zvi Stolper, Shmuel Wolf
Production Agav Films (France), Mikado Films (Italy), TV1, The Israeli Quality Film Fund (Israel)
Producers Laurent Truchot, Roberto Cicutto
Line producer Shuki Friedman
SALES / DISTRIBUTION
AGAV FILMS
6, cour Berard. 75004 Paris – France
+33 (0)1 42 40 48 45
agav@amosgitai.com