FEATURE FILM
Why War
In 1932, Albert Einstein was invited by the League of Nations to address a letter on any subject to any person. He chose to correspond with Sigmund Freud about avoiding war. To this day, the correspondence about war of two great thinkers of all time proves to be more relevant than ever. Inspired by this correspondence between Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud almost a century ago, the film Why War traces the roots of war, and embarks on a search for an explanation of the savagery of wars that inhabit our world.
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
The film Why War comes out following an exchange of letters between Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud, which defined the modern discourse on mass human violence that occurs in the name of religion, race and nationality.
The cinema I make is always inspired by the reality in which we live (Kippur, Kadosh, House, Rabin The Last Day). Once again, I chose to have a dialogue with the cruel reality that exists in this region. The films avoids showing the iconography and photographs of the horrors of war and destruction that continue to fuel the wars.
The idea is to make a narrative film without seeing the war. I also based myself on a text by Virginia Woolf, Three Guineas, in which she investigates the relationships of domination in sexuality, to which another essay by Susan Sontag responds, Regarding the Pain of Others, which also talks about the iconography of war. Today you just have to turn on the television to be overwhelmed by the shocking images of Israeli women and men taken violently by Hamas from their homes or a music party into captivity, by the continuous destruction of Palestinian lives in Gaza. It is an iconography that precisely amplifies war. If I am an Israeli citizen and I see what happened to some women on October 7, it is almost natural to think of revenge. And equally, if I am a Palestinian and I see my loved ones dying under the bombings, I will feel the same feeling of revenge and hatred that leads to armed conflicts.
When the attack on October 7th occurred, I wanted to read and reread some texts to seek help and understand the roots of this human desire to engage in a war and in killing. And in this search this exchange of letters was a revelation. Between 1931 and 1932 the League of Nations, which preceded the creation of the UN, asked Alfred Einstein to choose an intellectual with whom to discuss a question. Einstein chose Sigmund Freud. And the question around which these two great minds found themselves was: why the war? Why do people go to war with each other?
We are not condemned to war and violence, on the contrary. But it is true that in some ways it is the easiest solution and at the same time the most terrible. When I dealt with Rabin’s assassination, this was already the crux of what I was trying to understand. This correspondence between Einstein and Freud continues my research on how armed conflicts can be avoided, how it is possible to find peaceful solutions to reconcile distant positions. Around this extraordinary dialogue between two brilliant intellectuals I built a poetic film in which the war is never seen.
A lot of cinema has already told about the war, and continues to do so. I wanted to take on another challenge, explore another narrative approach, having the fortune of these magnificent texts and a formidable cast that gives voice and presence to this reflection: Irène, Mathieu Amalric who plays Freud while Micha Lescot is Einstein.
The film also features many others, especially musicians, with whom I usually work. We shot between Vienna, Tel Aviv, Berlin, and Paris.
Even if I personally started from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the film moves towards a universal reflection that could be applied to the war between Russia and Ukraine, to what is happening in Sudan. Unfortunately there is no shortage of examples.
I lived alongside ethnic, religious and political divisions, always trying not to get overwhelmed. And for me cinema has a civic mission. That’s what I try to bring to my cinematography. We live in a world in which dialogue has become increasingly complicated and rare, and this favors extreme positions as we also see in many parts of the world. So it’s not a film that wants to give an answer, but to make us all question ourselves.
I would like to build bridges instead of burning them. We directors, but all artists in general I believe, must not resign ourselves to divisions. On the eve of October 7, I knew that we were in an explosive situation in Israel but this awareness did not cushion the trauma for someone like me who has long been trying to get Israelis and Palestinians to talk through art. It’s what I’ve been doing for years in my films and theatrical works. In Antiquities the traditional role of artists was to be healers. To heal souls. I would like to embrace the idea of the filmmaker or the artist as a healer.
CREDITS
Written and directed by Amos Gitai
After the correspondence of Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud
Cinematography Eric Gautier
Second Camera Denis Jutzeler, Dan Bronfeld, Vladimir Truchovski
Music Alexey Kochetkov
Editing Yuval Orr
Sound Design Ronen Nagel
Sound Daniel Shitrit, Michelle Lunna Alexa
Sound Mix Benjamin Viau
Hair & Make-up Artist Cécile Kretschmar
Choreography Advisor to Irène Jacob Joëlle Bouvier
Artistic Advisor Marie-José Sanselme
Literary sources
Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud, Why War
Sigmund Freud, Malaise dans la civilisation
Virginia Woolf, The Three Guineas
Susan Sontag, Regarding the Pain of Others
Evgenia Rudenko, Alexander Plank, Un point de lumière flou
Amos Gitai, The War of the Sons of Light against the Sons of Darkness, inspired by Josephus Flavius, The Jewish War
Music
Alexey Kochetkov: Lament for Yitzhak, Aurora Sonora, Late Night Impro
Ernst Bloch: Schelomo, arrangement Alexey Kochetkov © Agav Films
Benjamin Britten: War Requiem, Op. 66 / Dies Irae - Lacrimosa dies illa
Maurice Ravel: Kaddish
Additional Music Louis Sclavis, Kyoomars Musayyebi, Simon and Markus Stockhausen
Soprano Magdalena Hallste
Choir WienerKammerchoir
Cast Irène Jacob, Mathieu Amalric, Micha Lescot, Jérôme Kircher
And the participation of Yael Abecassis, Keren Mor
Produced by Agav Films, Elefant Films
In association with Downtown Studios (Geneva), Stephen and Ruth Hendel (New York), Gad Fiction – Gilles Masson and Nathalie Varagnat (Paris), United King - Moshe and Leon Edery (Tel Aviv), InterEurop – Laurent Truchot (Paris), Indiana Production – Marco Cohen and Benedetto Habib (Milan), Live and Survive Productions – Rechulski, Agav Hafakot – Shuki Friedman (Tel-Aviv), RTS Radio Télévision Suisse SRG SSR
With the support of Cinéforom and Loterie Romande, Democracy Broadcasts of Haifa and the Galilee Architecture and Cinema
In 1932, Albert Einstein was invited by the League of Nations to address a letter on any subject to any person. He chose to correspond with Sigmund Freud about avoiding war. To this day, the correspondence about war of two great thinkers of all time proves to be more relevant than ever. Inspired by this correspondence between Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud almost a century ago, the film Why War traces the roots of war, and embarks on a search for an explanation of the savagery of wars that inhabit our world.
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
The film Why War comes out following an exchange of letters between Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud, which defined the modern discourse on mass human violence that occurs in the name of religion, race and nationality.
The cinema I make is always inspired by the reality in which we live (Kippur, Kadosh, House, Rabin The Last Day). Once again, I chose to have a dialogue with the cruel reality that exists in this region. The films avoids showing the iconography and photographs of the horrors of war and destruction that continue to fuel the wars.
The idea is to make a narrative film without seeing the war. I also based myself on a text by Virginia Woolf, Three Guineas, in which she investigates the relationships of domination in sexuality, to which another essay by Susan Sontag responds, Regarding the Pain of Others, which also talks about the iconography of war. Today you just have to turn on the television to be overwhelmed by the shocking images of Israeli women and men taken violently by Hamas from their homes or a music party into captivity, by the continuous destruction of Palestinian lives in Gaza. It is an iconography that precisely amplifies war. If I am an Israeli citizen and I see what happened to some women on October 7, it is almost natural to think of revenge. And equally, if I am a Palestinian and I see my loved ones dying under the bombings, I will feel the same feeling of revenge and hatred that leads to armed conflicts.
When the attack on October 7th occurred, I wanted to read and reread some texts to seek help and understand the roots of this human desire to engage in a war and in killing. And in this search this exchange of letters was a revelation. Between 1931 and 1932 the League of Nations, which preceded the creation of the UN, asked Alfred Einstein to choose an intellectual with whom to discuss a question. Einstein chose Sigmund Freud. And the question around which these two great minds found themselves was: why the war? Why do people go to war with each other?
We are not condemned to war and violence, on the contrary. But it is true that in some ways it is the easiest solution and at the same time the most terrible. When I dealt with Rabin’s assassination, this was already the crux of what I was trying to understand. This correspondence between Einstein and Freud continues my research on how armed conflicts can be avoided, how it is possible to find peaceful solutions to reconcile distant positions. Around this extraordinary dialogue between two brilliant intellectuals I built a poetic film in which the war is never seen.
A lot of cinema has already told about the war, and continues to do so. I wanted to take on another challenge, explore another narrative approach, having the fortune of these magnificent texts and a formidable cast that gives voice and presence to this reflection: Irène, Mathieu Amalric who plays Freud while Micha Lescot is Einstein.
The film also features many others, especially musicians, with whom I usually work. We shot between Vienna, Tel Aviv, Berlin, and Paris.
Even if I personally started from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the film moves towards a universal reflection that could be applied to the war between Russia and Ukraine, to what is happening in Sudan. Unfortunately there is no shortage of examples.
I lived alongside ethnic, religious and political divisions, always trying not to get overwhelmed. And for me cinema has a civic mission. That’s what I try to bring to my cinematography. We live in a world in which dialogue has become increasingly complicated and rare, and this favors extreme positions as we also see in many parts of the world. So it’s not a film that wants to give an answer, but to make us all question ourselves.
I would like to build bridges instead of burning them. We directors, but all artists in general I believe, must not resign ourselves to divisions. On the eve of October 7, I knew that we were in an explosive situation in Israel but this awareness did not cushion the trauma for someone like me who has long been trying to get Israelis and Palestinians to talk through art. It’s what I’ve been doing for years in my films and theatrical works. In Antiquities the traditional role of artists was to be healers. To heal souls. I would like to embrace the idea of the filmmaker or the artist as a healer.
CREDITS
Written and directed by Amos Gitai
After the correspondence of Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud
Cinematography Eric Gautier
Second Camera Denis Jutzeler, Dan Bronfeld, Vladimir Truchovski
Music Alexey Kochetkov
Editing Yuval Orr
Sound Design Ronen Nagel
Sound Daniel Shitrit, Michelle Lunna Alexa
Sound Mix Benjamin Viau
Hair & Make-up Artist Cécile Kretschmar
Choreography Advisor to Irène Jacob Joëlle Bouvier
Artistic Advisor Marie-José Sanselme
Literary sources
Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud, Why War
Sigmund Freud, Malaise dans la civilisation
Virginia Woolf, The Three Guineas
Susan Sontag, Regarding the Pain of Others
Evgenia Rudenko, Alexander Plank, Un point de lumière flou
Amos Gitai, The War of the Sons of Light against the Sons of Darkness, inspired by Josephus Flavius, The Jewish War
Music
Alexey Kochetkov: Lament for Yitzhak, Aurora Sonora, Late Night Impro
Ernst Bloch: Schelomo, arrangement Alexey Kochetkov © Agav Films
Benjamin Britten: War Requiem, Op. 66 / Dies Irae - Lacrimosa dies illa
Maurice Ravel: Kaddish
Additional Music Louis Sclavis, Kyoomars Musayyebi, Simon and Markus Stockhausen
Soprano Magdalena Hallste
Choir WienerKammerchoir
Cast Irène Jacob, Mathieu Amalric, Micha Lescot, Jérôme Kircher
And the participation of Yael Abecassis, Keren Mor
Produced by Agav Films, Elefant Films
In association with Downtown Studios (Geneva), Stephen and Ruth Hendel (New York), Gad Fiction – Gilles Masson and Nathalie Varagnat (Paris), United King - Moshe and Leon Edery (Tel Aviv), InterEurop – Laurent Truchot (Paris), Indiana Production – Marco Cohen and Benedetto Habib (Milan), Live and Survive Productions – Rechulski, Agav Hafakot – Shuki Friedman (Tel-Aviv), RTS Radio Télévision Suisse SRG SSR
With the support of Cinéforom and Loterie Romande, Democracy Broadcasts of Haifa and the Galilee Architecture and Cinema
SALES / DISTRIBUTION
AGAV FILMS
Laurent Truchot
6, cour Berard. 75004 Paris – France
+33 (0)1 42 40 48 45
ltruchot@gmail.com
SALES / DISTRIBUTION
AGAV FILMS
Laurent Truchot
6, cour Berard. 75004 Paris
France
+33 (0)1 42 40 48 45