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    Home » Director Samuel Moaz Captures Grief, Trauma In Israeli Drama “Foxtrot”

    Director Samuel Moaz Captures Grief, Trauma In Israeli Drama “Foxtrot”

    By SHOOTSaturday, September 2, 2017Updated:Tuesday, May 14, 2024No Comments2770 Views
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    Director Samuel Maoz poses during the photo call for the film "Foxtrot" at the 74th Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy, Saturday, Sept. 2, 2017. At left actress Sarah Adler looks on. (AP Photo/Domenico Stinellis)
    VENICE, Italy (AP) --

    The last time Israeli director Samuel Maoz came to the Venice Film Festival, he won the top prize with his first feature film.

    Then, his main feeling was shock. Eight years later he's back with only his second feature, "Foxtrot," a critical hit that could win him his second Golden Lion.

    "This time I hope to enjoy it," Maoz said.

    There's just one bad omen. His luggage went astray on the way to Venice, where "Foxtrot" had its red carpet premiere on Saturday.

    Maoz is philosophical about it. He is acutely aware how many things are beyond our control.

    "Foxtrot" is a potent parable about fate and peoples' powerlessness to direct their destinies.

    The film opens with an affluent Tel Aviv couple (Lior Ashkenazi and Sarah Adler) being informed their soldier son has died in the line of duty.

    The parents are floored by grief, and the film has more shocks in store for them as it explores the way trauma scars individuals and societies, and ripples across generations.

    Maoz' 2009 Venice winner, "Lebanon," was a claustrophobic portrait of an Israeli tank crew, inspired by the director's own experiences as a young soldier. "Foxtrot" also has its roots in a story from his life.

    "When my eldest daughter went to school, she never woke up on time, and in order not to be late she would ask me to call for a taxi," Maoz told The Associated Press. "This habit cost us quite a bit of money, and seemed to me like a bad education, so one morning I got mad and told her to take the bus like everyone else.

    "Around 20 minutes, half an hour after she left, I heard on the radio that a terrorist blew himself up" on her bus route and that dozens of people were killed, he continued.

    Maoz said "there was one horrible hour" where he could not reach his daughter.

    "After one hour, she returned home. She was late for the bus that exploded — she saw it leave the station and took the next bus."

    From that came the film's story of a father who unwittingly triggers a tragedy for his family.

    While "Foxtrot" has real-life roots, the director says he structured the film like a Greek tragedy, with three acts in which "the hero creates his own punishment and fights against anyone who tries to save him. And he is unaware of the outcome that his actions will bring about."

    The film's middle section depicts the son's experience as one of four soldiers manning a desolate roadblock. It is a life of muddy tedium with the potential for sudden violence.

    Again, the scenes feel grounded in Maoz' own military experiences, but he says the roadblock is more allegorical than real, a way of exploring conflict-scarred Israel "and the distorted perceptions that come out of terrible past trauma."

    At Venice, critics are calling the film a front-runner for the festival's Golden Lion prize. But the director expects criticism in his home country for his treatment of the army, the most revered of Israeli institutions.

    The film is bleakly comic in the way it depicts the bureaucratic and hypocritical aspects of the military and the brutalizing effect of decades of conflict on the country and its people.

    Maoz said the army "is such an integral part of our state," because almost all young Israeli men and women must serve time.

    "I could create a (story of) horrible crime in the Israeli police and nobody would say (anything)," he said. "But if you touch the army, this is very, very sensitive."

    Maoz' attitude to his homeland is expressed in a shot in a film. It features a laptop's screen showing a death notice for the young soldier, and beside it, a bowl of oranges.

    "I think that this is the story of my country — oranges and death notices," he said.

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    Category:News
    Tags:FoxtrotSamuel MaozVenice Film Festival



    To Tell Her Story In A Groundbreaking Documentary, Marlee Matlin Reached Out To First-Time Director Shoshannah Stern

    Friday, June 20, 2025

    When American Masters approached Marlee Matlin about doing a documentary, Matlin had one name in mind to direct: Shoshannah Stern.

    Like Matlin, Stern is deaf. She also hadn't directed before. But Matlin, who herself became the first deaf person in the Directors Guild of America just a few years ago, was certain she was up to the task.

    The resulting film, "Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore" is an intimate look at her life: Growing up in a hearing family; winning the best actress Oscar at 21 for her first movie role in "Children of a Lesser God," which film critic Rex Reed at the time called a "pity vote"; what she's described as an abusive romantic relationship with her co-star, the late William Hurt, which he denied; getting sober; and her experiences in an industry not equipped to accommodate deaf actors.

    It's also an evocative portal into the world of the deaf community that uses groundbreaking techniques and sound design to put American Sign Language (ASL) and visual communication first. The film opens in select theaters Friday.

    While Matlin told much of her story in the memoir "I'll Scream Later," on some level it wasn't a completely satisfactory experience. Before the #MeToo movement, its revelations were not treated entirely seriously in the media. But a documentary also provided an opportunity.

    "We communicate visually," she said.

    Matlin and Stern spoke though translators about the "CODA" effect, making the doc on their terms, and why they hope Reed sees this film. Remarks have been edited for clarity and brevity.

    Q: Shoshanna, what was your approach?

    STERN: I had never seen a deaf person direct an episode of TV or film. Never. I thought, what does that even... Read More

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