The film Testimony by Shlomi Elkabetz (To Take a Wife 2004, Seven Days 2008) has been added to the list of films participating in the Israeli Feature Film Competition at the 27th Haifa Film Festival, 2011. The film, a hybrid between documentary and fiction, opened the 2011 Cinema South Film Festival in Sderot in a pre-premiere screening, and had its world premiere at the 68th Venice Film Festival 2011, this past September.
Testimony consists of 24 actual testimonies of Israeli soldiers and Palestinians living in the territories, as collected, in Hebrew, recounted by Israeli actors. The film is described as one monologue, a journey into the collective memory of Palestine and Israel against a backdrop of local empty landscapes, “an attempt to touch upon the bleeding bond between the two peoples by uniting their narratives.”
Participating actors: Ronit Elkabetz, Menashe Noy, Keren Mor, Reymonde Amsellem, Dikla, Zohar Liba, Ofer Hayun, Albert Iluz, Esti Zackheim, Roy Assaf, Rinat Mattoub, Leah Mendelsohn, Ilanit Ben Yaacov, Eyal Schecter, Dekel Adin, Dani Leshman, Uriah Ron, Or Ben Melech and Morris Cohen.
Testimony (Israel, 2011, 80 min)
Directed by Shlomi Elkabetz
Screenplay by Shlomi Elkabetz and Ofer Ein Gal
DP David Adika
Editor Joëlle Alexis
Music Dikla
The film is supported by the Yehoshua Rabinovich Tel Aviv Film Foundation (Cinema Project), Noga Communications (Channel 8), Centre National de la Cinématographie et de l’Image Animée (CNC-AFLE), Wild Bunch
