Israeli film brings shock of war to Venice Film Festival

By Małgorzata Wojtunik

VENICE, Sept 6 - Just a month before the first anniversary of Hamas' attack on Israel and the start of the war in Gaza, Israeli filmmakers have brought the horrors of the conflict to the Venice Film Festival.

"Of Dogs And Men" was filmed on location in a kibbutz that was targeted by Palestinian militants last October, following a teenage girl seeking her dog that she had lost during the assault she herself had survived days before.

Confronting the aftermath of the massacre in her own shattered community, she witnesses, at a distance, the tragedy unfolding across the border fence in Gaza as Israeli forces pound the coastal enclave.

Speaking before Friday's world premiere of his movie, director Dani Rosenberg dismissed suggestions it might be too soon to be making a fictional film out of the conflict that is still raging in the Gaza Strip.

"I felt very strongly that it was the right time to tell the story," he told Reuters. "I think it's our job, as filmmakers, to open a window onto reality in order, perhaps, to allow for a ray of humanity to enter."

On the first day of the festival, more than 300 filmmakers, actors, writers and musicians published a letter condemning the inclusion "Of Dogs And Men" and another Israeli film, "Why War", saying Israeli production houses were complicit in the "oppression of Palestinians".

Rosenberg shrugged off the boycott call, saying those who had signed the letter had not even seen his film.

"Ultimately, my aspiration is for the war to end and their aspiration is also for the war to end, meaning, in that sense, that we share the same goal. I just don't agree with their way of promoting it."

Though the story is fictional, it uses genuine locations, improvised dialogue and real-life locals, with only the main character played by an actress - 18-year-old Ori Avinoam.

"It was just a very immersive experience for all of us, because we're such a small crew, maybe like seven people," Avinoam said. "It's something I didn't think I would be able to experience so young as an actor."

Although Rosenberg and his team said they craved for a return to peace, they were under no illusions that their own work could in anyway play a role in achieving that.

"I don't think that in the immediate term cinema can bring about change, you know, even 'Guernica' in the end, which is maybe the most significant piece of art about the horrors of war, didn't change the situation in Spain," he said, referring to Pablo Picasso's epic vision of the Spanish civil war.

"But I do think that in the long run, it will leave a memory of the terrible reality we were in," he added.

"Of Dogs And Men" is being shown in the Venice festival's Horizons section, which runs alongside the main competition. The festival closes on Saturday.

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