Zaytoun, an Eran Riklis Film, production notes

Samantha Robinson2

Description

Zaytoun is the story of the unlikely alliance between a 12-year-old Palestinian refugee and an Israeli fighter pilot shot down over Beirut in 1982. Their initial distrust develops into friendship as they make their way across war-torn Lebanon on a journey to a place they both call home.

Sujets

• Zaytoun
• Eran Riklis

Informations

• Publié par: Fil_Divertissement
• Publié le: 27 février 2013
• Nombre de lectures: 81
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 3 Mo

Extrait

an Eran Riklis Film PRODUCTION NOTES NB : Zaytoun is the Arabic word for olive PR CONTACTS: FRANCE Benoit Sauvage,  Pathe International  + 33 171 723 309 TIFF Andrea Gau, Touchwood PR [phone] UK Johanna Fernihough  Freud Communications  [phone]

SHORT SYNOPSIS Zaytounis the story of the unlikely alliance between a 12-year-old Palestinian refugee and an Israeli fighter pilot shot down over Beirut in 1982. Their initial distrust develops into friendship as they make their way across war-torn Lebanon on a journey to a place they both call home. LONG SYNOPSIS Beirut, Lebanon, in 1982 is a dangerous place for anyone, not least a young Palestinian refugee like Fahed. He skips school to sell gum and cigarettes on the city’s streets, defying the wishes of his father and much to the annoyance of his Lebanese rivals who attempt to drive Fahed and his friends back to their camp. Making matters worse, Lebanon is in the midst of a savage civil war between its numerous political and religious factions and on the verge of

being invaded by its southern neighbour, Israel, which is determined to stop PLO rocket attacks coming over the border. Meanwhile, ordinary Palestinians like Fahed, his father and grandfather exist in the refugee camps. While the local PLO commanders attempt to train Fahed and his friends into the next generation of fighters, they’d rather be playing football, organising impromptu matches in rubble-strewn streets in which a burnt out car’s shattered front window acts as the goal. But Fahed’s life takes a tragic turn when his father – his “Baba” – is killed in a bombing raid and an unusual one when an Israeli Air Force pilot who he witnesses parachuting out of the sky is captured.

Having listened to stories all his life about the supposedly idyllic village his grandfather called home when Israel was still Palestine, Fahed is overtaken by a powerful urge to return to the land of his ancestors and plant the olive tree his father had been nurturing before he died. And that requires making a perilous decision: to free the captive Israeli pilot, Yoni. In return, Yoni must agree to take Fahed to Israel. As a guarantee, the boy swallows the key to the

handcuffs he leaves on Yoni, who has little choice but to go along with Fahed’s crazy plan. As their journey progresses, Fahed and Yoni must overcome bitter differences built up over generations in order to survive the dangers as Palestinian, Syrian, and Lebanese soldiers chase them across war-torn Lebanon. A tenuous friendship takes root and strengthens with every hurdle they

overcome to reach a land they both consider home. REACHING FOR THE SKY: ABOUT THE PRODUCTION From acclaimed Israeli filmmaker Eran Riklis, Academy award-winning producer Gareth Unwin, and producer Fred Ritzenberg, comesZaytoun, the powerful and moving story of an unlikely friendship that comes to fruition in two nations on the verge of war. Yoni (Stephen Dorff) is a fighter pilot in the Israeli Air Force who is captured by Palestinian militia after he is forced to eject from his F-16 over Beirut in 1982. Fahed (Abdallah El Akal) is a 12-year-old Palestinian refugee who makes a

fateful decision to free the pilot following the death of his father in an air raid. Despite the fact that their two peoples are sworn enemies, they reluctantly join forces to achieve a shared ambition – reaching the Israeli border before Lebanon’s multifarious hostile factions catch them first – and discover common ground and their common humanity along the way. Zaytounis Unwin’s first production following his phenomenal success with The King’s Speech, the most successful British independent film of all time.

On its triumphant march to collecting a vast passel of awards, including four Oscars and seven BAFTAs,The King’s Speechplayed at film festivals around the globe, including the Dubai International Film Festival where it was selected as opening-night film in December 2010. It was in Dubai that Unwin was asked by a festival representative if he would meet her cousin, a Palestinian-American engineer who had turned his hand to screenwriting.

Ritzenberg, who had been developing Zaytoun for several years with Rizq, was hoping their trip to Dubai might yield development money, maybe a producing partner. For his part, Unwin was mindful that he didn’t want his next project to beThe King’s Speech: Mark 2, and found himself instantly intrigued byZaytoun’s elements: its Middle Eastern milieu; the early 1980s setting on the eve of the Israel-Lebanon war; and, most of all, the poignant, touching friendship at its core. “Even though I wanted to find something that was very different from The King’s Speech, I could also see that this core relationship between the pilot and the boy, who have to get to know and trust each other and work together to achieve their goals, was similar thematically,” Unwin observes. “As a person and a producer, I like stories that have a moral message, not in a strident way but I think it’s good when cinema uses its power to make you question the human condition.” Head of development at Bedlam Productions, Will Emsworth, read the script and said, “It’s the best script we’ve had through the door sinceThe King’s Speech.” Unwin agreed with Emsworth’s enthusiastic assessment, and

immediately recognisedZaytoun’s potential to make an impact on the global stage. When Ritzenberg revealed that Israeli filmmaker Eran Riklis had played a pivotal role inZaytoun’s development and was approached to direct, Unwin, a huge fan of Riklis’ 2008 filmLemon Tree, found it the perfect fit of director to material. In London, Riklis, Ritzenberg and Unwin met. “Within five minutes, we understood that we were going to make this film together,” says Riklis, who developed his previous films from their origins. “This was different for me but it was easy to say yes. We had a good relationship from the very beginning.” IN THE BEGINNING: THE ORIGINS OF ZAYTOUN Every story has its beginnings andZaytoun’s lie 20 years ago with a Palestinian university student who, while studying for his engineering degree in America, stumbled across the screenplay for Oliver Stone’s Vietnam War

epicPlatoonin the library. “A couple of days later I rented the VHS – remember those? – stuck it in my VCR and was thinking to myself, ‘This is silly. Somebody watched this movie and then wrote down everything the actors said,’” says Nader Rizq. “It took a minute to dawn on me that somebody wrote the screenplay first and then it just blew my mind that somebody would be able to create an entire world on the page.”

Rizq was hooked and screenwriting became “a hobby gone awry” for him, even as he pursued a career in avionics engineering at Motorola among other companies. Born in Kuwait to Palestinian parents, Rizq spent most of his childhood in the Middle East, including summers and school holidays in the West Bank where his parents still reside today. The inspiration for telling the story of a young boy who has never seen the country where his parents’ families come from seems almost painfully obvious. “I wanted to find the most compelling way I could to explain what it’s like to be Palestinian”. In 2001, Rizq enteredZaytouninto the prestigious Nicholls Fellowship screenwriting competition and, to his amazement, made the final shortlist. One of the competition’s readers even phoned him directly, encouraging Rizq in his efforts and “telling me not to give up”. In 2007, he managed to attract the interest of Ritzenberg, whose nearly 30 years of experience in the film business include producing and co-directing the critically acclaimed 1983 concert filmGospeland writing screenplays for major Hollywood producers like Joe Roth, Ted Field and Daniel Melnick. Ritzenberg also heads up the screenwriting department at the Berkeley

Digitial Film Institute, located in the Saul Zaentz Media Center in Berkeley, California. The two men spent a further three years re-writing Zaytoun, Ritzenberg in California, Rizq in Florida. “I want to give Skype a credit in this movie,” laughs Ritzenberg. While Rizq’s early drafts skewed heavily in favour of the Palestinian cause, Ritzenberg, feltZaytounneeded to present a fair and balanced portrait of friendship that aired both sides’ views. “The first thing we did was try to create some kind of parity between the story of the pilot and the

story of the kid,” he says. “Nader is tremendously talented and he was very open to alternative ways of telling the story.” The next step was drawing up a wish list of directors, with Ritzenberg concluding that he needed to find someone from the region who could impart a sense of reality and integrity to the story. Eran Riklis very quickly became his top choice. One of Israel’s most talented and successful filmmakers, Riklis made his feature film debut in 1984 withOn A Clear Day You Can See Damascus, shortly after graduating from Britain’s National Film and Television School. Several of his films have been selected for major film festivals, won numerous awards and met with international acclaim, while others, such as

1993’sZohar, have been big hits in his native country. His filmsCup Final(1992),The Syrian Bride(2004) andLemon Tree(2008) had each detailed the strife-ridden, mistrustful Arab-Israeli relationship in compassionate, sensitive terms and, more importantly, he was an outstanding storyteller. “I completely fell in love with Eran’s movies,” says Ritzenberg. “I felt that his approach to telling Middle Eastern stories would bring an authenticity toZaytoun, and would also be fair and balanced because he had

done so in the past.” It was precisely that ability to be sensitive to the pain on both sides that appealed to Ritzenberg. When he sent out overtures, though, Riklis was initially reluctant, feeling he’d covered similar terrain in the three films he calls his “Middle East cycle” and concerned that the script in its current state was too dogmatic. Following a meeting in New York, Riklis emailed his observations and told Ritzenberg to get back in touch when they had a new draft. “They were extensive notes and they were fantastic,” says Ritzenberg. “They changed the structure of the story by focusing on the kid and his perspective. Eran said, ‘Let’s have the pilot drop out of the sky and the audience and the kid will project who they think this guy is and then layer upon layer we slowly get to know him.’ That was a brilliant suggestion.”

“It turned out to be a stroke of genius because that’s what the story is: it’s about these two people, not about all the other stuff,” says Rizq, who cites Dances With Wolves,The Killing FieldsandCry Freedomas the noble cinematic inspirations forZaytoun. “It depoliticised the story by making it about the pilot and the kid rather than the pilot and everybody in the camp. The more you focus on a couple of characters, the more you get to the heart of the story.” While Riklis went off to shoot his next two films, the Israeli Academy Award- winningThe Human Resources ManagerandPlayoff, Rizq and Ritzenberg overhauled the screenplay. Then came the Dubai invitation from Rizq’s cousin and the meeting with Bedlam Productions’ CEO, the partner Ritzenberg needed who had the clout to bringZaytounto fruition. Recalling that fortuitous encounter in a hotel bar, Ritzenberg says: “He told me he would go to the end of the earth to get this movie made and he lived up to that promise.” TAKE-OFF: GETTING ZAYTOUN OFF THE GROUND With Unwin on board, the ambition level for the film was significantly elevated, from budget to behind-the-camera talent. Everyone saw the benefit in telling this story on a wider canvas. Further script development followed, much of it removing the lingering, overtly political elements. “Eran was always for getting rid of the slogans,” Ritzenberg explains. “I’m Israeli so there are certain places I won’t go,” observes the filmmaker. “I feel that if we’re trying to get away from the politics, we have to present them in such a way that it’s almost like offering a crash course in Middle East politics for the audience: ‘The kid says this, the pilot says this – you decide.’” Knowing that Riklis was being courted for other projects, Unwin made it his mission to move the film into production as swiftly as possible. “I think it’s an interesting partnership for both sides,” reflects the director. “For Gareth, it’s branching away from a hyper-successful film but also very British subject

matter. It’s venturing into unknown territory and I appreciate his braveness on that level. It’s treacherous terrain, the Middle East, no matter what you do. Everybody has an opinion.” Unwin, too, is full of praise for his director. “He’s a great motivator. Everyone respects him so much, he’s so affable and he’s full of hugs when he sees people are getting down. He’s been the captain of our ship and someone who I’ve really grown to admire.” Zaytounwas officially announced at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival and the first piece of the financing jigsaw puzzle fell into place when Pathe International came on board as international sales agent and French distributor. The Israeli distribution rights were sold to United King Films and Unwin was able to raise the rest of the budget through private equity, much of it from partners who had also invested inThe King’s Speech.Zaytounis flying the flag as the first official UK-Israeli co-production, while also qualifying for benefits under the France-Israel co-production treaty. Slumdog Millionaireproved that audiences can fall in love with a film that mixes it up between English and local languages.Zaytounfollows a similar paradigm, with the story starting in English as Fahed flogs cigarettes on the streets of Beirut to a UN medic (Alice Taglioni) before switching to Arabic for part of the opening act, as Fahed and his friends roam through Beirut and Shatila, attending school and avoiding the older men who want to make PLO fighters out of them. When Yoni falls out of the sky and is taken captive, the film switches again to English as the universal language they both understand, ideal for a film its producers hope will be embraced by audiences around the globe. VESSELS OF LIGHT: THE ACTORS The international ambitions forZaytounmeant the project needed a recognisable name to play its leading man, Yoni. Stephen Dorff was one of the first to come up. Although originally conceived to be in his mid 20s, the average age for an Israeli Air Force pilot, 38-year-old Dorff is playing Yoni in his early 30s, an age when most pilots would already be in the reserve. But

making Yoni older also allowed the filmmakers to increase the emotional stakes for Yoni by giving him both a pregnant wife, who is seen standing on a beach in a photograph that Fahed finds and taunts the captive pilot with, and a dead father. Dorff found himself in the privileged position that all film actors crave following his much-admired performance in Sofia Coppola’sSomewhere, a film that provided his career with a nice uplift and put him back where he belongs as a much sought-after screen star. Having already capitalised on this career second wind with roles in American films such as Immortals, Dorff was ready for a new challenge – and found it inZaytoun. Although initially concerned as to whether he’d be believable as an Israeli pilot, Riklis soothed his fears when they met up in New York. “A lot of Israelis look like Stephen,” notes Riklis. “He had the looks of an Israeli pilot and, behind a rough façade, a very gentle soul. I felt he was intriguing. When I look at actors for any role, I try to look for a secret and there’s something about Stephen which you want to discover.”

Dorff and Riklis also point out that Eric Bana, Helen Mirren, Jessica Chastain and Sam Worthington have all portrayed Israelis very successfully in recent years in Munich and The Debt. “Some people have come up to me and said, ‘You’re playing an Israeli?’” laughs Dorff. “But that’s what I love to do: be a chameleon, become different people. And since I’ve been in Israel, everybody speaks Hebrew to me like I’m Israeli. For me, every movie should be different

and I loved the idea of coming here.” Dorff arrived in Israel a few months early to work with a dialect coach and study Hebrew. Having tackled accents before, the actor felt comfortable with the challenge of mastering Hebrew-accented English – and even Riklis, who admits he was a bit worried at first, has been impressed with the results. Dorff also wanted to absorb local culture before the shoot began. “I wanted to immerse myself into the world,” he says. “My father’s Jewish and his parents were very Jewish so I experienced a lot of Judaism in America but being here is so different, coming to the Holy Land, seeing Jerusalem, going to the Dead Sea, being in Tiberias, shooting in Haifa and all over the country. I think the

only places I haven’t been are Eilat and Nazareth. I’ve had a lot of fun and made a lot of friends here. It’s definitely a place I’ll come back to.” Dorff was also granted exclusive access to many of the country’s air force bases, where he sat in a real F-16, learned the ins and outs of the major conflicts Israel’s been engaged in since its birth and met pilots, both active and retired, who shared their experiences of combat missions, supersonic flight and sometimes even captivity. “I met a pilot who had been captured and held by the Syrians for two and a half years in 1982,” says the actor. “He’s now a pilot for El Al, as so many of the retired guys are.” Towards the end of Zaytoun, Yoni is taken up in a helicopter. The pilot at the helm, Dorff discovered, happened to be same one involved in a dramatic rescue mission involving the flight partner of Ron Arad, an Israeli navigator taken hostage in Lebanon in 1986 who never returned, in which he hung desperately to the helicopter treads as the pilot flew back to Israel. On duty themselves, the young pilots Dorff met with had to tell him, “If the alarm sounds, we’ll have to stop talking because we have to be up in the air in five minutes.’” When it came to casting Fahed, one of the primary challenges was finding a young actor who spoke English, Arabic and Hebrew (the latter so Riklis could converse with him during the shoot). The casting net for Fahed and his circle of friends was flung far and wide, from Israel to Paris to London, with Riklis, Unwin and Ritzenberg looking at 400 kids before settling on their core group of five. Originally, Fahed had been written as a 10 year old but Riklis felt they needed to make him a year or two older to have a better chance of finding a young actor capable of undertakingZaytoun’s most demanding scenes. Having worked with 13-year-old Abdallah El Akal before on his short film, A Soldier And A Boy, Riklis says Abdallah El Akal was the first name that came to his mind – but he still embarked on a long, rigorous process before finally giving him the role. “I think it drove Abdallah a little bit crazy but I had to be sure,” says Riklis. “My fear was that he’s almost too professional. We had to bring him down to earth a little bit and make him more like a kid. But it turned out to be very easy