The 79th Cannes Film Festival opens Tuesday, and this year’s edition completely excludes Israeli cinema. There is no Hebrew-language representation in any of the festival sections. Still, Israelis are involved in several of the more prominent and talked-about productions.
In Minotaur, by decorated exiled Russian director Andrey Zvyagintsev (The Return, Leviathan), which is competing for the Palme d’Or, two Israeli actors appear: Vladimir Friedman, currently seen in the Netflix series Bad Boy and in Unconditional on Keshet 12, and Anatoliy Beliy, now appearing in Crime and Punishment at Gesher Theater and soon in the series The Intern.
Tell us about the casting process.
Friedman: “I still have no idea how Andrey got to me. I swear. The whole thing was a little strange. One day I got an offer on WhatsApp: ‘Hello, my name is Asya, I’m the casting director for Andrey’s new project. We’d like to offer you a filmed audition. Would that interest you?’ I almost fell over. I said, ‘Of course.’ I had to read a lot of script pages. After I sent the filmed audition, I got a message: ‘Andrey saw it and liked it very much, and asked that you film another scene, just to be sure. He doesn’t want us to have to drag you to an audition in Riga.’ So I filmed another scene. Then I got a message: ‘Andrey liked it very much and said you are a wonderful actor and has cast you in the role.’”
Beliy: “Andrey and I have known each other for a long time. I auditioned, but it was like a meeting between friends. He is a great artist.”
Friedman: “For Andrey, the casting process is 70% of the work. He told me I was the first actor in the cast he finalized. After he chooses an actor for a film, he lights a pipe.”
Minotaur, filmed in Riga, Latvia, centers on a Russian businessman who has to send his employees to the war in Ukraine. Friedman plays a mayor “who receives an order to recruit people and send them to the front,” he says. “The mayor knows they are going to die there and forces factory owners to recruit their workers. It is a political allegory with elements of intimate drama and crime thriller.”
Beliy plays a friend of the film’s protagonist. “The central issue Andrey raises in the film is the moral choice of every person in a country that not only starts a war and kills its neighbors, but also destroys its own citizens,” Beliy says.
Friedman lavishes praise on working with Zvyagintsev. “Andrey is extraordinarily amazing, and I say that as an actor with a lot of experience. On set, I felt as if I had already acted for him before. Andrey works with you at eye level, gives you freedom and room to improvise. I felt that he believed in me and gave me confidence. He asked me to be as natural as possible. He said he liked me in the auditions and that I was doing a terrific job in the role. For me, working with Andrey is a dream come true. I have admired him for many years. He is precise and stubborn. And the fact that a film I act in is competing at Cannes is wow. Great.”
Beliy, a longtime friend of Zvyagintsev, adds: “Andrey always creates a warm, family atmosphere on set.”
Last year, Beliy came to Cannes with Two Prosecutors, by Ukrainian director Sergei Loznitsa, set in the Soviet Union in 1937. “Being in Cannes was wow. Something else. An amazing experience. The whole city wears cinema.”
Unfortunately, Beliy and Friedman will not travel this year to the French resort city for the premiere of Minotaur, among other reasons, because of their commitments to the plays in which they are performing.
Friedman and Beliy are not the only Israelis connected to films in the main competition. Also competing for the Palme d’Or is Paper Tiger, by Jewish American director James Gray (Two Lovers, Ad Astra), starring Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver. One of the film’s producers is Lee Broda, who grew up in Ness Ziona and is now making her mark in Hollywood.
This is the third film Broda has produced in recent years to compete in Cannes’ main competition. It was preceded by May December and The Apprentice. Gray’s new film is about a Jewish family and two brothers chasing the American dream who become entangled with the Russian mafia.
“It is always exciting to come to Cannes, especially with meaningful, high-quality films,” Broda says. “Everyone says Paper Tiger is the best film James Gray, one of the smartest directors I have met, has made. I was on set and Scarlett was lovely. We spoke a little about Israel. It is a point of pride for me to represent the country, especially in Cannes.”
Outside the competition, De Gaulle will be screened. Set during World War II, it tells the story of Charles de Gaulle, leader of Free France during that period. The cinematographer on De Gaulle is Giora Bejach, known for Samuel Maoz’s films Lebanon and Foxtrot and the smash-hit Apple TV series Tehran. Bejach was called in during production to replace the original cinematographer and step behind the camera.
“My approach appealed to the filmmakers: much freer and more energetic, less square and rigid,” Bejach says. “I also didn’t want the frame to be too clean. I wanted the war to look like war.”
Because the film deals with one of the most significant figures in French history, the premiere has generated considerable anticipation and curiosity.
“This is one of the biggest productions made in France in recent years,” Bejach says. “It is a very important film for the French. It talks about the French underground that fought the Nazi occupier and reveals things even the French do not know. For me, Cannes is an adventure. It is a great honor to be in a place like that.”
French actor Simon Abkarian, who once starred in Ronit and Shlomi Elkabetz’s trilogy, plays de Gaulle.
“When I first met Simon, the conversation began with Ronit, who died 10 years ago,” Bejach says. “For Simon, working with Ronit and Shlomi was one of the great adventures he had. Ronit’s death was a very major crisis for him. I spoke with Simon in Hebrew, with no problem. He knows enough to communicate.”