Appelfeld's Table Israel, 2004, 47 minutes Public Exhibition Formats: Beta, DVD |
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“Beautifully transmits the humanity, optimism, and joy of living with which Appelfeld, both the writer and the ordinary person, managed to emerge from the horrors he endured as a youngster. At the same time, it is a film about the making of the Israeli collective, and of the creative struggle that awaits those who refuse to automatically assimilate into.” – Jerusalem Post
Synopsis
“I saw death of all shades, there wasn’t a type of death I didn’t see. At first I tried to repress all those experiences. I tried to ignore them. But I gradually came to understand that without those experiences, no matter how horrifying they may be, without these ordeals I am not me.” - Writer Aharon Appelfeld
Identity, memory and the mysteries of the creative process and survival combine in this film about renowned Israeli writer Aharon Appelfeld. Director Japhet-Fuchs spent three years filming the author on his daily pilgrimages to the Jerusalem café where he writes and meets with friends and colleagues. She first became captivated by the author of over 30 books while reading his memoir The Story of a Life about his experience of being a child during the Holocaust and about having to forget who he was in order to reinvent himself as a Ukrainian boy. The film focuses on this pivotal point in his life and his later arrival to Israel as an adolescent.
Appelfeld's Table transmits something of the intangible process by which Appelfeld transforms the world around him into writing - the way he puts things together by observing people, a their gestures, and the effect they have on him. In addition to spending years at his cafe table, Japhet-Fuchs travelled to Moldova and the Carpathian Mountains, where Appelfeld spent his early childhood years before the war. Excerpts form Appelfeld's writing are narrated by actor Alon Aboutboul, who successfully captures Appelfeld's simple, laconic tone.
Awards
BEST DOCUMENTARY, JEWISH EXPERIENCE International Jerusalem Film Festival
Selected Screenings
HotDocs Canadian International Documentary Festival (2005)
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