Sameh Zoabi, director
|
Can you briefly describe what TEL AVIV ON FIRE is about?
Sameh Zoabi: The film is about Salam, a Palestinian young man, who works on a local TV soap opera show called “Tel Aviv On Fire”. Salam is struggling to find his voice as a writer on the show, he is trapped between the Israeli Officers at the checkpoint and the Arab producers. He tries to please everyone by giving them an ending to the show that both agree with. This is for me the core of the film; it’s is a broad comedy but a personal story at the same time. |
What was the initial idea and how did you develop it?
I was inspired by the reaction to my work, both films and scripts. As a Palestinian filmmaker who also holds an Israeli citizenship, I feel that people always read closely into the politics of my work, there is always an interpretation that swings between the two sides. People question both the Israeli side of the story and the Palestinian, it always feels like it is a test and I have to pass both somehow to survive as a filmmaker. It’s an interesting dilemma that I find myself trapped in each time I want to make a movie… This feeling was the beginning of the inspiration of TEL AVIV ON FIRE and Salam, the main character.
You combine comedy with a reflection of the Palestinian/Israeli conflict and a parody of soap opera aesthetics. How did you find the right tone?
The comedic tone was inspired by my upbringing – humour is an essential mechanism for my people to deal with the harsh daily reality of experiencing injustice.
The core of this balance started in the script process. I worked with my co-writer Dan Kleinman for almost a year just to outline the story before we actually started writing the script. It was a tough balance of different styles of writing. On one hand, writing the daily reality of my main characters which deals with Salam’s encounters both on the TV set/studio and outside on the street. We are with Salam at the checkpoint and his neighborhood where he encounters his love interest. On the other hand, the soap opera that is different and requires overly dramatic writing, which was very hard. I have never written a soap opera before. What I found interesting in soap is that it requires no subtext. The characters exaggerate their emotions and their dialogue is straightforward, for me that was the best tool to both keep the politics in the film clear and alive—while maintaining the comedy. Because for people who watch cinema, soap opera is unbelievable in itself but comic if used well when interwoven with the daily reality—and this is exactly what we did.
For instance, the opening scene of the film, which I find quite political: The Palestinian characters in the soap express how they feel about the 1967 Arab Israeli war approaching. They talk about their hope, history and fear of the Israeli occupation of Jerusalem. They express their emotions very directly, without filters, but because this scene takes place inside the movie as part of a soap opera, it provides comic relief.
So the script was the core and then filming was very precise and of course the wonderful cast makes the difference as well.
How did you find your cast? And how do you work with your actors?
In the past I worked with a mix of professional and non-professional actors. In this film, because the story is more complex and scenes are fully scripted, I decided to work with professionals only. I conceived most of the cast during the writing process, like Lubna Azabal, Nadim Sawalha, Salim Dau, Maisa Abd Alhadi and many others whom I worked with or knew their work very well.
A big challenge in casting the film was to find the best match of energy and chemistry between my main character, Salam, and his antagonist Assi. Their dynamic relationship stands at the core of the film. I found that the nuanced, minimalist acting by Kais Nashif as Salam alongside the very energetic Yaniv Biton as Assi gave me the most comedy and inner strength of the characters. Yaniv comes from a more comedic background while Kais has done more dramatic roles like in “Paradise Now” and other films. It was a risk to cast him in a comedy, but Kais brought a deeper, more complex, melancholy side to Salam than is in the script, which helped create a more interesting arc to his character. All of this was a work in progress, I do believe that casting and the rehearsal phase can make a difference in a film and we did a lot of that. Also, I never approach my films as comedy, actors can’t play the funny lines, they have to believe them.
What does it mean to make a comedy about Israel when you are a Palestinian?
The reality now on the ground is very tragic indeed. No hope on the horizon, the occupation did not end after the Oslo peace accord, it’s getting worse in fact. So no peace to talk about, only more disconnect between the two side, more walls.
It’s a big challenge to make a comedy dealing with the Palestinian and Israeli reality. People take the region and the conflict very seriously, and any attempt to make a comedy can easily be misunderstood as not strong or not serious. But I believe that comedy gives the freedom to discuss very serious issues in a more subtle manner. In my films, I try to entertain but also to speak truthfully about the human condition of where my characters live. TEL AVIV ON FIRE tries to take a step back from the heated violent reality to remind people that Jews and Arabs have more in common than what they really want to believe. There is a way forward to a better future if the occupation ends and people look to each other eye to eye as equal human beings and not as occupier and occupied, because nothing happens with force, we have seen this through history.
You have lived and worked in the US for many years. How has that influenced your perspective?
I am sure my studies here in New York allowed me a new perspective on cinema as entertainment and not only arthouse. I always wanted to make films that combine both words: A film that entertains but is also about something socially, personally or politically meaningful. Also you cannot separate the writer from the daily reality they live. As a writer you have to be connected to your reality for inspiration, what we see and how we experience ordinary life makes the difference – for a writer nothing ordinary should be taken for granted. I believe that I am like my characters: someone who is always looking for his voice in daily reality. And I grow with this experience every day. Therefore I have to be in touch with my surroundings for inspiration, that’s also why the first draft of the script and the last one are not the same, it takes 4 years to make a movie, and I hope that in these 4 years I have grown and matured as my characters did, so why would I block myself from daily inspiration along the way on this journey?
Comedy is not always easy to translate to other languages and cultures. Why does your film resonate so well internationally since the world premiere in Venice last year?
The comedy has been working everywhere the film has screened. Humour is universal, you just need to work harder to avoid the local humour and open it up for universal appeal. It’s never easy, but I love this challenge, because that means you must be super specific about your characters and what makes them tick in the given setting you are writing about.
What were the reactions to TEL AVIV ON FIRE in Israel/Palestine?
The way Salam in the film managed to make everyone happy, so does the film itself. It is amazing how it is connecting with both audiences in the same way, which proves my point that we have more in common than what the politicians are trying to tell us. We need to remind people not to lose their humanity with the violent rhetoric that politicians keep playing with to create a disconnected reality of US and THEM. That is the core of racism and hatred that is spreading around the world now and not only in the Middle East – as artists we can create work that builds bridges between people.
