For a man whose personal mission has been to “build bridges through cinema,” as he told La Repubblica newspaper in an interview just published this week, his latest film may prove the most important peace-making link yet.
At the center of the personal story of the man in Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer there is an encounter between the protagonist, a physicist who brought the world the atom bomb, and Albert Einstein, the theoretical physicist who is widely held as one of the most influential scientists ever. Bookending the film, at the start seen from afar, and at the end finally revealed for all its words and truths, the scene gives meaning to the great havoc unleashed by J. Robert Oppenheimer and his creation.
So it’s no wonder that Amos Gitai, a filmmaker always at the forefront of the peace process in his own incendiary land of Israel, has also chosen Einstein to tell his latest story, in a film that Venice Film Festival Director Alberto Barbera admitted could be seen as fiction or non-fiction, and lives comfortably in both genres.
This time, Einstein is joined by the iconic figure of Sigmund Freud, the Austrian neurologist and founder of modern-day psychoanalysis. Both men were Jewish, as is Gitai and Why War is inspired by a real life incident, when, in 1932, Einstein was invited by the League of Nations to address a letter on any subject, to any person. At that time, he chose to correspond with Sigmund Freud addressing how to avoid war. While Einstein maintained the importance of establishing an independent judicial body to mediate disputes, Freud agreed with this idea but also felt that "it is unlikely that we can suppress the aggressive tendencies of mankind". A fascinating conversation ensued as the film — which will world premiere at the upcoming Venice Film Festival Out of Competition and in the Non-Fiction section — comes out of this exchange of letters between Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud, one that has come to define the modern discourse on mass human violence, which often if not always occurs in the name of religion, race and nationality.
As Einstein wrote to Freud to kick off the exchange, “I greatly admire your passion to ascertain the truth -- a passion that has come to dominate all else in your thinking,” so I would like to address Gitai. He’s always been the compass that guides my understanding of his inflamed, yet beautiful land, but also the voice of reason whenever I can feel my natural human tendency to view the issues it faces as black and white. All I have to do is wait for his next film — the filmmaker is incredibly prolific, even as he has had to bear some nasty health issues lately — and he’ll reconfirm the necessity to view the world in shades of grey. After all, even saints have a stain on their path, and evil men aren’t evil all of the time. They have wives, children, parents who love them.
Why War stars actors and actresses from Israel and around the world, including frequent Gitai collaborators Mathieu Amalric, Micha Lescot, Irène Jacob, along with Yael Abecassis and Keren Mor.
As the preliminary press release about the film states: “To this day, the correspondence about war of two of the greatest thinkers of all time proves to be more relevant than ever. Inspired by this correspondence between Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud almost a century ago, the film Why War traces the roots of war, and embarks on a search for an explanation of the savagery of wars that inhabit our world.”
Although film festivals and cinema funding organizations have shied away from screening and supporting Israeli and Palestinian filmmakers, this marks the second time this year that Gitai’s work has been shown in a major festival. Kicking off with Shikun, a reimagining of Eugène Ionesco’s play Rhinoceros which world premiered at Berlinale, it is time for Now War in the official selection of the Venice Film Festival. This is an extraordinary and significant achievement for Israeli cinema, in a period of cultural exclusion and boycott of Israeli filmmakers in the international industry.
Gitai said: “The cinema I make is always inspired by the reality in which we live (Kippur, Kadosh, House and Rabin The Last Day). Once again, I chose to have a dialogue with the cruel reality that exists in this region, and to show it on the greatest cultural stages in the world. The film avoids showing the iconography and photographs of the horrors of war and destruction that continue to fuel the wars." Opting instead, I may add, for a dialogue that promises to show us the way to peace. Inshallah.
Why War was shot in Tel Aviv, Paris, Vienna and Berlin and was produced by Agav Films (Paris, Tel Aviv), in association with Elefant films (Geneva), Gad Fiction (Paris), FreeStudio, InterEurop, United King Films (Tel Aviv), Stephen and Ruth Hendel (New York) and Indiana (Milan). Photography is by Eric Gautier, with editing by Yuval Orr. The music is by Alexey Kochetkov, Louis Sclavis and Kyoomars Musayyebi. It is written and directed by Amos Gitai.