Amos Gitai
Photo: Ofer Amram
When Mexican screenwriter and director Guillermo Arriaga asked Israeli director Amos Gitai
to collaborate with him on his new international project "Words with Gods" a few months back, Gitai was dumbfounded.
"I'm not a religious man," Gitai explained.
Jewish Culture
Ashley Baylen
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Gitai was approached to take part in the global project along with 10 other world renowned film directors, including Serbia's Emir Kusturica, India's Mira Nair and Australia's Warwick Thornton.
On the set of new film (Photo: Ofer Amram)
Gitai's film is currently being shot in Jaffa and features Yael Yael Abecassis, Zohar Shtrauss, Eran Sabag, Sarai Givaty, Shadi Sarsour and Ruti Asrasi. All of the actors mentioned above, including the women, are playing the role of Amos the prophet.
Israeli actress Yael Abecassis
Gitai is dedicating the film to actor, director and founder of the Freedom Theater, Juliano Mer Khamis, who was shot to death in Jenin in April 2011.
Gitai on Jaffa set
"We need brave people whose work will also address the critical dimension, with all due respect to chasing after titles and honors. Culture receives meaning, in the deeper sense of the word, only when it expresses criticism. That's the biggest homage a creator can offer the society in which he lives in," Gitai explained.
Sarai Givaty and Zohar Shtrauss
The film includes both Hebrew and Arabic dialogue while the soundtrack has been edited from the third part of Avodath Hakodesh (Sacred Service), a piece written by Jewish-American composer Ernest Bloch. It was composed in 1933 to the words of a Shabbat Hebrew prayer famous in Reform synagogue in the United States.
Arriaga's global project is expected to wrap up by summer's end and the premiere will most likely take place at the upcoming Venice International Film Festival.
The "Words with Gods" project is a part of a much larger project initiated by Arriaga called "Heartbeat of the World," which deals with four issues: Religion, sexual orientation, politics and drug addiction.