Strangers (2007 Israeli film)

Last updated
Strangers (Zarim)
Strangers Poster.jpg
Film poster
Directed by Guy Nattiv, Erez Tadmor
Written byGuy Nattiv, Erez Tadmor (synopsis only)
Produced byTami Leon, Chilik Michaeli, Shai Michaeli, Avraham Pirchi
Starring Lubna Azabal and Liron Levo
Edited byYuval Or
Music byEyal Leon Katzav (original music)
Distributed by IFC Films
Release dates
June 8, 2007 (Jerusalem Film Festival); May 29, 2008 (Israel - wide release); October 18, 2011 (DVD-U.S.)
Running time
85 minutes
CountryIsrael
LanguagesArabic, English, French, Hebrew
Budget$200,000 (estimated)

Strangers (Zarim) is a 2007 Israeli experimental fictional film directed by Guy Nattiv and Erez Tadmor that is set during the 2006 FIFA World Cup and the 2006 Lebanon War. It is the first feature film that they made together [1] and was developed from an award-winning 2004 short of the same name. [2]

Contents

Plot summary

Strangers opens in Berlin during the 2006 FIFA World Cup. Rana Sweid (Lubna Azabal), a Palestinian from Ramallah currently living in Paris, meets Eyal Goldman (Liron Levo), an Israeli who grew up on a kibbutz, after they accidentally switch bags on a train. They eventually strike up a friendship and decide to watch the World Cup together. Their budding romance is cut short when Rana is mysteriously called back to France and asks Eyal to stop seeing her. Despite her request, he seeks her in France. They are then faced with the 2006 Lebanon War as Eyal is drafted by the Israel Defense Forces.

Cast

Production

In 2004, directors Erez Tadmor and Guy Nattiv submitted a short called Strangers to the Sundance Film Festival. [3] It won the Online Film Festival Viewers Award [4] which led to funding a full-length version of the film. [2] [5]

They envisioned the feature version as experimental in form, largely improvised and centered around the World Cup in Berlin. Production began in Berlin with one actor (Levo), photographer and producer. They then met with actress Lubna Azabal whom they convinced to join the production via phone by telling her: "two actors, one camera and the World Cup Soccer Championships. That's all. No screenplay, only a synopsis, and we want to flow with it." [6] According to the directors, they wanted "the actors to improvise their lines without being bound by an official screenplay, and to let the relationship that would develop between the characteristics dictate the flow of the plot." [6]

The war broke out two weeks into the Berlin shoot, prompting production to shut down. Tadmor noted that, "We immediately made the decision to stop shooting and return home to be with our families. When we continued shooting later in Paris, it was a different movie." [5] The basic premise of the film, a love story, was thus further complicated by the introduction of the war when filming resumed: " 'We didn't want to do a war movie or a political movie, but it's there in the background, on the TV and radios - it's all over the place. The characters really continued their relationship while the war was all around them. We tried to avoid the clichés of the Arab-Israeli conflict, but you saw how these two characters dealt with it,' said Tadmor." [5]

Release

After an initial showing at the Jerusalem Film Festival on June 8, 2007, Strangers was released nationwide in Israel on May 29, 2008. It was one of two films shown at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival on the 2006 Lebanon War. The other was Philippe Aractingi's Under the Bombs . [7] IFC Films bought the U.S. rights to Strangers in 2008 after it was screened at Sundance and the Tribeca Film Festival. [1] The DVD was released by Zeitgeist Films on October 18, 2011. [8]

Reception

Critical response

John Anderson of Variety praised the acting as a key factor in making the film a "winner" with "first-rate" production values. [9] Emily Wilson of KQED states that: "Exploring whether love can overcome political and social barriers is a familiar premise, but Strangers covers the territory in a fresh way. The actors, working mostly without a script, improvised their dialogue, which makes the characters feel less like pawns the filmmakers are moving around to make a point." [10]

Accolades

Strangers was an Official Selection at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival, and the 2008 São Paulo International Film Festival. [11]

See also

Related Research Articles

<i>Walk on Water</i> (film) 2004 Israeli film directed by Eytan Fox

Walk on Water is a 2004 Israeli film directed by Eytan Fox and starring Lior Ashkenazi, Knut Berger, and Caroline Peters. The screenplay was written by Gal Uchovsky. Most of the dialogue is in English, although there is much in Hebrew and German. Its name derives in part from Jesus' walking on water.

Strangers are people who are unknown to another person or group.

<i>Alila</i> (film) 2003 film by Amos Gitai

Alila is a 2003 Israeli film directed by Amos Gitai and starring Yaël Abecassis, Uri Klauzner, and Hanna Laslo. The drama follows half a dozen very different characters through their lives in modern-day Israel, giving Gitai an opportunity to comment on his country's top social issues.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nadine Labaki</span> Lebanese actress, director and activist (born 1974)

Nadine Labaki is a Lebanese actress, director and activist. Labaki first came into the spotlight as an actress in the early 2000s. Her filmmaking career began in 2007 after the release of her debut film, Caramel, which premiered at the Cannes 2007 Film Festival. She is known for demonstrating everyday aspects of Lebanese life and covering a range of political issues such as war, poverty, and feminism. She is the first female Arab director to be nominated for an Oscar in the category for Best Foreign Language Film for Capernaum (2018).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lubna Azabal</span> Belgian actress

Lubna Azabal is a Belgian actress of Moroccan–Spanish descent.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zar Amir Ebrahimi</span> Iranian-French actress (born 1981)

Zahra Amir Ebrahimi known professionally as Zar Amir Ebrahimi, is an Iranian-French actress, producer and director. She rose to international prominence for her performance as journalist Arezoo Rahimi in the crime thriller Holy Spider (2022), for which she won the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress and Robert Award for Best Actress.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cinema of Lebanon</span> Filmmaking in Lebanon

The cinema of Lebanon, according to film critic and historian Roy Armes, is the only other cinema in the Arabic-speaking region, beside Egypt's, that could amount to a national cinema. Cinema in Lebanon has been in existence since the 1920s, and the country has produced more than 500 films.

<i>Under the Bombs</i> 2007 Lebanese film

Under the Bombs is a 2007 Lebanese drama film directed by Philippe Aractingi. The film is set in Lebanon at the end of the 2006 Lebanon War.

Cup Final is a 1991 Israeli film set during the 1982 invasion of Lebanon by Israel and the 1982 FIFA World Cup.

<i>Lebanon</i> (film) 2009 film

Lebanon is a 2009 internationally co-produced war film directed by Samuel Maoz. It won the Golden Lion at the 66th Venice International Film Festival, becoming the first Israeli-produced film to have won that honour. In Israel itself the film has caused some controversy. The film was nominated for ten Ophir Awards, including Best Film. The film also won the 14th Annual Satyajit Ray Award.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Samuel Maoz</span> Israeli film director (born 1962)

Samuel Maoz is an Israeli film director. His 2009 film, Lebanon won the Golden Lion at the 66th Venice International Film Festival. He also won the award for Best Screenplay for Lebanon at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards in 2010.

Ziad Doueiri is a Lebanese film director, cinematographer and writer. He is best known for his award-winning films West Beirut (1998) and The Insult (2017), a film that was nominated at the 90th Academy Awards, representing Lebanon in the Best International Feature Film category.

<i>Incendies</i> 2010 Canadian film

<i>Here</i> (2011 film) American drama film

Here is a 2011 American drama adventure film directed by Braden King who also co-wrote the movie with Dani Valent. The film stars Ben Foster and Lubna Azabal.

Braden King is a New York-based filmmaker, photographer and visual artist. His feature film, Here (2011), starring Ben Foster and Lubna Azabal, premiered at the 2011 Sundance and Berlin Film Festivals and was distributed theatrically by Strand Releasing in 2012. A multimedia installation version of the project, Here [ The Story Sleeps ], premiered at The Museum of Modern Art in 2010 and toured internationally with live soundtrack accompaniment by composer Michael Krassner and Boxhead Ensemble. King's previous work includes the feature film Dutch Harbor: Where the Sea Breaks It's Back, the award-winning short film Home Movie and music videos for Glen Hansard, Sparklehorse, Sonic Youth, Bonnie 'Prince' Billy and Dirty Three.

<i>Cannon Fodder</i> (film) 2013 film

Cannon Fodder, also known by the alternate titles of Basar Totahim and Battle of the Undead, is a 2013 horror film that was directed by Eitan Gafny, based on a script written by Gafny and Amit Lior, and is Gafny's feature film directorial debut. The film had its world premiere on 10 May 2013 at the Cape Fear Independent Film Festival and stars Liron Levo as a security operative sent to Lebanon on a final mission, only to discover that his opponents are of the dead.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Norman Issa</span> Arab-Israeli actor (born 1967)

Norman Issa is an Arab-Israeli actor, director in cinema, theatre and television.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Guy Nattiv</span> Israeli film director, producer and screenwriter

Guy Nattiv is an Israeli film director, screenwriter and producer who lives and works in the United States. His film Skin won an Oscar for best short film at the 91st Academy Awards. As of May 2021, Nattiv and Moshe Mizrahi are the only Israeli directors who have won an Academy award. In 2019, he received IFF Achievement in Film Award at the 33rd Israel Film Festival.

<i>Golda</i> (film) 2023 film

Golda is a 2023 biographical drama film directed by Guy Nattiv and written by Nicholas Martin. The film depicts the life of Golda Meir, Prime Minister of Israel, particularly during the Yom Kippur War. It stars Helen Mirren, Camille Cottin and Liev Schrieber.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Monika Borgmann</span> German-Lebanese filmmaker & activist

Monika Borgmann-Slim is a German–Lebanese journalist, award-winning documentary filmmaker, and archivist. She is an activist against what she describes as Lebanon's culture of impunity and Vergangenheitsbewältigung, countering official amnesia about the Lebanese Civil War (1975–1990). She is the widow of the Lebanese filmmaker, archivist and activist Lokman Slim, who was assassinated in 2021.

References

  1. 1 2 "IFC takes U.S. rights to 'Strangers'". Variety.com. Retrieved 17 September 2017.
  2. 1 2 "Sundance Institute". Archived from the original on 2017-09-17. Retrieved 2017-09-17.
  3. ↑ [ dead link ]
  4. ↑ Archived 2012-03-15 at the Wayback Machine
  5. 1 2 3 "No strangers to success". Jpost.com. Retrieved 17 September 2017.
  6. 1 2 [ dead link ]
  7. ↑ "Israel-Lebanon war sparks 'human' films at Sundance". In.reuters.com. Retrieved 17 September 2017.
  8. ↑ "Zeitgeist Films :: DVD Press Room". Zeitgeistfilms.com. Retrieved 17 September 2017.
  9. ↑ Anderson, John (28 January 2008). "Review: 'Strangers'". Variety.com. Retrieved 17 September 2017.
  10. ↑ "KQED Arts". KQED Arts. Retrieved 17 September 2017.
  11. ↑ [ dead link ]
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.