"Choosing to live a fictional or realistic life is a struggle" - Filmmaker Tom Shoval on "Youth"

Israeli filmmaker Tom Shoval presented his debut feature film Youth at the 57^th BFI London Film Festival. The story is that of two brothers who, wanting to help their father and their family through serious financial problem in the midst of the economic crisis come up with a ‘Hollywood’ plan to kidnap a girl. It certainly helps that one of them receives a rifle after he enlists in the army.

 

 

MM - Youth is a very different type of kidnapping film…

TS - I don’t see the film as a kidnapping film at all. I wanted to show two brothers who are under great stress in their families because of their situation in the economic crisis and are also great fans of American cinema. They want to help, but they are very young. The only thing they can do is something that is similar to the genre of film that they see, also because one of them gets a weapon after he enlists. So the film is a combination between genres in a way.

 

 

Was it this mixture and contrast of genres that interested you?

Yes, this is a film about contrast. In the house, there is the upstairs where there is a sort of family drama going on, and the downstairs where the kidnapping story is happening. And sometimes the two mix together – the tension goes upstairs and then the grace goes downstairs. There is also a contrast between the two brothers, in the sense that they look the same and are very similar but sometimes they change identities. For me, when you go into the cinema you sometimes see your own life and so I also wanted how film sometimes creeps into reality and vice-versa.

 

 

One of the most intriguing aspects of the film is the influence of cinema. Is there a comment to be read of the influence of popular culture in 

today’s youth in your film?

Not in a didactic way. It’s more about the age itself when you can’t do anything – that is why the film is called Youth. You are still considered young, you can’t responsibility and stuff. But in Israel at that point, you also get a gun. Because they are not offered any other choice, they are almost forced to do things that the cinema has taught them to do because it is the place where they spent most of their time. But I don’t believe that if someone sees a violent film they become violent themselves.

 

 

Of course, the rifle is really the key prop…

Yes, it’s really a strange society where you turn eighteen, they enlist you in the army, give you a rifle and tell you that the rifle is your best friend. You have to carry it all the time. So if you visit Israel, you see these strange images of these kids with rifles playing soccer or going to meet their girlfriend. But in Israel, we think it’s normal – we’re used to it. When I got mine, though, I thought it was very strange and I was like ‘what do I do with this!’ So another thing I wanted to show was that really, it’s not that normal. There is a scene, which takes place on the bus, where they take the kidnapped girl on the bus with a gun, and everyone is asking me ‘how the hell is that possible?’ But soldiers in Israel get to travel on the bus for free and no one would ever suspect that a soldier would ever do something wrong. So, in this scene you really see how Israelis see violence in a normal way.

 

 

So on top of the portrayal of youth, you wanted to show this situation of violence that has become a normality in Israeli society.

Yes, and also this sort of indifference. I tried a little experiment for that particular scene, to test its realism, and got the three actors – the two brothers and the girl – to play it out on the bus with no cameras. And I’m telling you, nobody said anything! It made me so depressed…

 

 

It is quite shocking but the shocking thing is that it would probably happen everywhere...

Yeah, indifference is universal.

 

 

Speaking of universal, I found the film itself has a universal appeal.

Actually I was very afraid of it because the film has a lot of very Israeli elements. The gun, the rifle theme, the Sabbath. Even the basement, that is in every house in Israel. I was afraid it would be hard to connect to, but I found out in the end that it was because of its emotion and because it is set in the economic crisis, which is happening all over the world now.

 

 

You briefly mentioned religion there, and religion is a key element of the film because it is the reason why no one looks for the kidnapped girl.

Well, this is part of the encounter with reality. In the end it seems the brothers are doomed to failure because of what is going on around them, with the brother having to go to the army and the girl’s family respecting the Sabbath. Maybe in Hollywood it would have been easier.

 

 

Can you tell us a little bit about the lead actors Eitan and David Cunio?

It took us about a year to find them. I really wanted them to be real brothers because I wanted their connection to be very vivid. We saw more than two hundred sets of brothers and we found in a place near the Gaza Strip, they had never seen a camera in their life and work as car mechanics. But I saw the connection I was looking for immediately after they walked in. With that, I went to try to make them actors and that took us another year.

 

 

How did you get them to become actors?

You may find it hard to believe but they are the most shy tender people that I have met, so it was hard to make them do these criminal violent acts. So I had to teach them how to stand in front of the camera and how to hold the tension. It was a very complex process.

 

 

Tom, this is your first feature. Tell us a little bit about what it is that interests you as a filmmaker.

Well, I think I live two beings. I live the reality and the reality of cinema, and I am always curious about how those two come together. That’s what I tried to do with this film and that is probably what I am going to try to do in my next film also. Choosing to live a fictional or realistic life is a struggle. But, you know, I think you can live in both.

 

 

Is it difficult to produce films in Israel right now? Especially for a first feature.

It’s not easy to get it financed, especially when the film is more art-house. In Israel, you can get some sort of money budget but not everything. You need to look around, maybe privately or even abroad. So this film became a co-production with Germany, but for that to happen it took us more than three years. It’s difficult.

 

 

So now that your first feature is made, what’s it like to be travelling the world showing it at different festivals?

It’s very overwhelming. I’m a devoted cinephile, and being at all these different festivals that I was reading about all the time it’s like a dream come true. Especially the BFI Film Festival, because I always go to the BFI when I am in London to buy books and stuff, so for me to be here with my own film…there are no words to describe it!

 

-          Matt Micucci