Ram Loevy
Encyclopedia
Ram Loevy is an award-winning Israeli television director and screenwriter since the medium first began broadcasting in the country in 1968
. In a career spanning forty years, he has written and directed some of the most prominent and subversive television movies and documentaries, challenging the status quo on such issues as class conflict
, torture
, the prison system, and the Israel-Palestinian conflict. Despite his reputation as a gadfly, facing off against the Israel
i establishment
, Loevy was awarded the Israel Prize
in Communication, Radio and Television in 1993 for his lifework.
Loevy is currently Professor Emeritus of Cinema and Television at Tel Aviv University
.
and his wife Elisa, originally from Poland. His father was the editor of the Danziger Echo
, a prominent Jewish newspaper
in the Free City of Danzig
, who had been jailed for publishing anti-Nazi
articles in his paper. Upon his release he fled to Poland, but that country later expelled him in the months leading up to World War II, under pressure from the authorities in Nazi Germany
. He and his wife arrived in Palestine just three months before Ram Loevy was born.
Loevy grew up in Tel Aviv, where he attended the Carmel School and Municipal High School A. As a boy, he was active in the Scouts and in the paramilitary Gadna
program, in which high school age boys and girls received paramilitary training in preparation for their military service. It was in the Scouts that he met his wife Zipora. Upon being drafted to the Israel Defense Forces
, he served in the Nahal
unit, combining military training
with agricultural work
on kibbutz
im throughout the country. He trained on Kibbutz Gal'ed
in northern Israel, near the large Israeli Arab
town of Umm al-Fahm
, and later served on Kibbutz Sde Boker
in the Negev
, where David Ben Gurion had retired. In the army, he trained as a paratrooper.
Even then, Loevy exhibited the same tendencies that challenged the authority of the establishment. Despite his ties to the military and the kibbutz movement, as a young Scout leader, he joined a group of movement activists
that first sought to expand the narrow focus of that group's educational policies from an emphasis on communal living
to broader humanitarian
objectives. Years later, these changes were adopted by the national scouting movement.
. He attended the Hebrew University
in Jerusalem, where he majored in Economics and Political Science
. At the same time though, he also dabbled in theater
by participating in student productions, and worked at the national Voice of Israel
radio station as a program editor, actor, producer, director, and skit-writer.
He also made his first foray into film as the assistant director for a documentary film, Sand Screen by Baruch Dinar, with noted American journalist Drew Pearson
. This was immediately followed by work on the documentary I Ahmad (1966
), directed by Avshalom Katz, for which he served as the executive producer and co-screenwriter. The film told the story of an Arab
laborer's journey from the Triangle
to Tel Aviv. These were two areas Loevy knew well: he had been raised in Tel Aviv, and Kibbutz Gal'ed, where he had spent part of his military service, was located on the outskirts of the Triangle.
(then known at the London School of Film Technique). Rather than attempting to create a national cinema
, the school focused on teaching a craft-based culture of excellence, and brought together students from dozens of countries around the world for hands-on training in the art of filmmaking
.
Loevy's stay in London was cut short, however, by events back home. In June 1967, the Six-Day War
erupted, and Loevy returned to Israel as a soldier. Soon after the war though, he returned to London to continue his studies and worked as an assistant director at Elstree Studios
for the British espionage
/science fiction
adventure series The Champions
. At the same time, he was also an announcer for the BBC
's Hebrew-language department.
launch the country's first attempt at television broadcasting, Channel 1
, which began broadcasting on 2 May 1968. In addition to his work on the new channel's weekly shows, he also directed a number of documentary films for it:
Already in these early works, Loevy focused on two themes that would dominate his later, better known projects: the tense relationship between Arabs and Jews in Israel, and the role of education and art in shaping a society. His next documentary would introduce another key theme: the inequities of class disparity and discrimination, not only between Jews and Arabs in Israel, but also among Jewish Israelis.
These themes would reappear in his later documentaries and in the full-length feature films for television with which he would be most identified. At this time, however, Loevy did not just focus on the major issues facing Israeli society. He saw himself as an educator, with a special place in his heart for children. It was in this spirit that, in 1971, he directed seven short films for children, based on the children's poetry
of Yiddish
writer Kadya Moldovsky.
These films can be divided into two groups: two films released in 1972, and two released in 1975. They are:
. The story, written in May 1949, tells of how Israeli soldiers expelled the Palestinian inhabitants of the fictional village of Khirbet Khize from their homes toward the end of Israel's War of Independence
. Though controversial, the story was well-known, and had been incorporated into the Israeli curriculum. S. Yizhar was a highly respected author, a recipient of the Israel Prize
, and served in the Knesset
from 1949 to 1967.
Loevy first proposed the dramatization of the story in 1972, but was rejected by the Israel Broadcasting Authority, ostensibly because the script he had written was poor, though, more likely, for political reasons. He recommended the story again in 1977, this time with a script by Daniella Carmi, hoping that the film would be used to mark Israel's 30th Independence Day. This time the film was approved, and he was given a budget of 700,000 Israeli liras—an enormous sum at the time. He filmed in the West Bank—all of the Israeli Arab villages had television antennas that marred the view—and completed the film in August of that year. There was some debate over whether the film should be screened because of its controversial nature, but after a screening before the entire board of the IBA, it was decided to go ahead.
By this time, however, a new, right-wing government headed by Menachem Begin
was voted into power in 1977
, while the film was still under production. Then Anwar Sadat
visited Jerusalem, and people from across the political spectrum began to question whether it should be screened, given the sensitivity of potential peace negotiations. Khirbet Khize was originally planned to be aired on 16 January 1978, but on that day the joint Israeli-Egyptian Political Committee first met in Jerusalem, and it was deemed inappropriate to raise such a controversial issue.
When the talks broke down that February, it was decided to screen the film only in the context of a political talk show, so that people from across the spectrum could engage in a public debate about it. This was not satisfactory to two members of the Knesset, representing the Labor and the ultra-Orthodox Agudat Yisrael parties. Though a decision was made to reconvene the IBA board to make a final decision, two members, representing the Likud and National Religious
parties were vocally opposed. In the end, Minister of Education Zevulon Hammer stepped in and blocked the film from being aired at all.
This prompted a bitter debate in Israel, with Knesset member Yossi Sarid
of the Labor Party declaring that "Freedom of expression
in Israel has been brought to half mast!". Some reports even claimed that Begin himself was stunned that the film was being censored. In protest at the ministerial decision, IBA employees decided to black out the broadcast for 48 minutes during the night that Khirbet Khize was to be screened (February 6, 1978) to protest the IBA's decision to allow the government to intervene in television broadcasting. The next week, the Board of the IBA finally decided to screen the film.
Khirbet Khize aired on 13 February 1978, and Ram Loevy earned the reputation of an iconoclast who was willing and able to fight a deeply politicized system. This was a turning point in his career, and his later films continued to challenge the established mythology of modern Israel. Immediately after it was aired, the film was shelved until 1993.
But Loevy could not ignore the impact that contemporary Israeli literature
might have on the country if it was adopted to a more populist medium like television. He turned back to literature in his next project.
Loevy spent 1983 in Cambridge, Massachusetts
. He had more than anyone shaped the direction of Israeli television as a medium addressing the country's major social issues, and for this he was awarded a Nieman Fellowship
by Harvard University
. Among the other fellows with whom he studies was Alex Jones
, winner of the 1987 Pulitzer Prize
. During his year in Harvard, he studied what he called "epic television", and wrote about how a single night of watching American television
—(Family Business, the news, and The Love Boat
, plus commercials) could be compared to a three-act drama
by Bertolt Brecht
. He bemoaned the idea of a politically neutral medium of television, and concluded "Television was almost never neutral. On the rare occasions when it took a stand, (McCarthy
, the Vietnam War
, Watergate
), it helped bring a significant change."
Upon returning to Israel, Loevy made a series of four documentary films for Israel TV, PBS
, and England's Channel 4
:
At the same time, he was preparing to embark on the project for which he is best known today, a drama about the Second Israel that would shake the country to its core.
s of Yeruham
, Dimona
, and Sderot
to meet with the local residents whose stories they wanted to tell, and producing sixteen more drafts until the story was finalized.
In an interview, Loevy later explained the significance of these encounters to him:
Loevy was determined to tell the story of the silenced masses, and he was determined to do it not by shouting but by silence. At a 2006 retrospective of his work, Loevy was introduced as an artist who "creates a silent scream in a soft but overwhelming voice." The result was his film Bread (לחם).
The film tells the story of a Job
-like character, Shlomo Elmaliach (played by Rami Danon), who loses his job at his town's local bakery when it is forced to close. Rather than join the other unemployed
protesters, Elmaliach locks himself in his home and launches a very personal hunger strike
. At first people come to visit him at home, and there's even a rumor that television reporters might show up (quickly dismissed by Elmaliach's friend Zaguri, "They only come when there's a ruckus.") Gradually, even Elmaliach's friends abandon him, and he ends up dragging his family down with him. A son (played by Moshe Ivgy
) seeks radical solutions to poverty, a daughter (played by Etti Ankri
) who escaped to Tel Aviv to study returns home and takes a job on a production line, and Elmaliach's wife (played by Rivka Bechar) takes a job as a seamstress. At the end of the film, the factory is reopened as a result of all the protests, but by then it is too late for Shlomo Elmaliach.
When Bread was aired in 1986, unemployment was skyrocketing in Israel after a period of relative affluence, and even the Israel Broadcasting Authority had just fired all of its contractors. The social impact was of the film was felt throughout the country, with one critic calling it a "punch in the stomach."
But the carefully crafted story, which bridged the gap between drama and documentary, had enormous international appeal as well. That year it was awarded the Prix Italia
for television fiction. According to the prize's jury:
, and the two countries maintained relations even despite the First Intifada
that was raging in the Occupied Territories. Then in 1987, Foreign Minister
Shimon Peres
signed the London Agreement
with King Hussein of Jordan
, outlining the framework for an international peace conference to be hosted by the United Nations
.
As the prospects for peace emerged, however, Israelis were now able to look inward and examine the rifts within their own society—rifts that had often been shunted to the side because of the looming security situation. There had been efforts to examine these problems as early as the 1970s, with the emergence of the Black Panther movement, but it was only in the mid-1980s that these problems surfaced at the forefront of the Israeli political dialogue. Much of the shift can be attributed to Loevy, who raised the issue through the popular medium of a television drama. It was therefore inevitable that Loevy would examine the impact of the most popular arts—music
, film
, and literature
—on a society in transition.
Loevy examined the role of music and film in society in two documentary films:
Rather than tackle literature the same way, Loevy chose instead to adapt major literary works to the medium of television. In each of these, the works themselves tackled major issues facing Israeli society. In these cases, Loevy saw himself as a conduit by which he could bring the work of leading Israeli authors and playwrights and the issues they tackled to a broader public.
One final film in this period was an original work scripted by Daniella Carmi. The Woman Who Stopped Eating (1991
) is the story of a troubled scriptwriter who wants to write a feature film about a woman who stops eating. She turns to a film director who is also going through a crisis in his life, and together they begin to weave a story about this imaginary woman. The tension soon erupts, however, because the screenwriter wants to keep her story in the realm of the imaginary, while the director struggles to adopt a more realistic approach to the storyline. In some way, the story reflected the tensions marking Loevy's own career as both a documentarian and a dramatist.
for his lifework. It was the most prestigious honor that the Israeli government awards to its citizens, given annually to people from a wide range of fields who have made a significant contribution to Israeli culture
, the sciences, or the country in general. It was only the second time that the prize was awarded to an individual for his contributions to television (the other was Moti Kirschenbaum
), though in 1985, the country's Arabic-language
television broadcasts also received the award. According to the jury that awarded the prize,
Loevy's winning of the award made headlines the next day. The newspaper Yediot Ahronot reported that, "Israel Prize Winner Making Film about the Secret Service's 'Torture Chambers.'" It was not an accurate headline. Loevy's project, The Film that Wasn't
, was a two-part documentary on the way interrogation
was practiced by Israel, both within the Green Line
(Episode 1) and in the Occupied Territories (Episode 2). Torture had long been a hot-button issue in Israel, and in 1987, an official commission headed by the former President of the Supreme Court
Moshe Landau
ruled that "moderate physical pressure" might sometimes be necessary as an interrogation tool. What the second episode really investigated was what was being defined as "moderate physical pressure." The two episodes were scheduled to be aired one week apart in October–November 1993.
While the first episode aired as planned, Kirschenbaum, who was then Director-General of the Israel Broadcasting Authority, was reluctant to screen the second episode until all three groups that interrogated prisoners—the police
, the Shin Bet, and the military
—responded to the allegations against them. Both the police and the Shin Bet did, but the IDF refused to respond to the charges of an anonymous young reservist, who claimed on camera to have been involved in the physical and mental abuse of prisoners. Even when it finally agreed to respond, it refused to ensure that the whistleblower
's anonymity would be protected. It took eight months of intense negotiations between the IBA and the IDF before the IDF agreed to respond to the whistleblower's accusations. The second episode finally aired almost eight month after the first, on 14 June 2004.
Some people claimed that for tackling such an emotionally charged issue, Loevy should have been denied the Israel Prize. Others, however, came to his defense, with one critic writing: "The Israeli establishment had no choice but to embrace Loevy and grant him the Israel Prize in 1993, but even this did not succeed in silencing his penetrating voice and lightening his uncompromising perspective on Israeli society."
This view was also echoed in the citation of the jury explaining why it selected Loevy:
), an adaptation of a new play (1993) by noted Israeli playwright Hanoch Levin
. The play itself was a remarkable achievement, inspired originally by the saga of the Saint Louis, but transformed over time into an "operatic" metaphor about death and the loss of faith in messianic
redemption
that transcends any historical setting. In the words of theater critic Michael Handelzaltz, "It is a moving play, evoking compassion and identification. It is shocking, farcical, warped, grotesque, and amazing." Unlike much of modern theater, it was a play in verse—a tribute more to Brecht than to Ibsen
, though it was Ibsen who had traditionally set the style for modern television drama. At the same time, however, it was also a story about the futility of human cruelty, a theme that resonated throughout so much of Loevy's earlier work.
This was followed by Loevy's adaptation of Mr. Mani, a best-selling epic saga by Israeli author A.B. Yehoshua, with a script by longtime collaborator Gilad Evron. The novel is based on five conversations that tell the story of five generations of a Turkish
–Greek-Jewish
family, but in a larger sense, it is the story of Jewish and Israeli identity over the past two centuries. Originally, Loevy was hesitant about adapting the book for television, and asked the author: "You already have a book. Why do you need a movie?" In the end, Loevy decided that his film would break the conventions of traditional literary adaptations by capturing the essence of the book itself, not just in terms of content but of style as well.
In the book, five distinct "mono-dialogues" are used to tell the story of the family to an assumed listening partner, who is otherwise neither seen nor heard. Each of these mono-dialogues is different, and given by different people in different languages or period-appropriate forms of Hebrew. Loevy captured this in the film, creating along the way a new television vocabulary, far removed from the conventional forms of drama. The "mono-dialogue" technique consistently and intentionally eliminated the "fourth wall" taboo
of television and film, according to which, whatever appears on the screen remains oblivious of the fact that an audience is watching it. The intention is that the audience is expected to absolve itself of its traditional neutrality, and assume the role of a specific character in the story.In Loevy's own words, "Television demands text, but the television viewer is used to getting the complete text. Every question has an answer. …" In Mr. Mani, however, the role of respondent is filled by the camera and, by extension, the audience itself. "As soon as the speaker turns to the camera—in other words, to the audience, speaking directly to it in a way that demands an answer, it is as if the speaker stepped out of the screen, almost like in Woody Allen
's The Purple Rose of Cairo
. The viewer is shaken up. The artificial nature of the situation itself in Mr. Mani screams its presence.". Like the characters in Luigi Pirandello
's Six Characters in Search of an Author
, the characters cease being the subjects of scrutiny by some external viewer. The external viewer, i.e., the audience, becomes a partner in dialogue with the actors and an active participant in the story.
This was a radical approach to television that was not immediately appreciated by the audience, including many who were familiar with the book. Loevy himself later said that, "As the person responsible for the artistic aspect of the production, I was eulogized on one hand and derided on the other. Since it was first screened in 1996
, however, the five-part miniseries Mr. Mani has won considerable acclaim for the way that it completely redefined the medium of television by transforming the viewer into an active participant. Mr. Mani was a critical success, and represented Israel at INPUT (the International Public Television Screening Conference) 1998.
In 1999
Loevy expanded his scope to tackle a new issue that was rising to the forefront of Israeli consciousness: environmentalism
. Fourteen Footnotes to a Garbage Mountain was a documentary film about the Hiriya
, once Israel's national garbage dump, on the outskirts of Tel Aviv
. To Israelis, however, the Hiriya is more than a dumpsite. It is a physical landmark—a flat-topped mountain (87 m)—towering over the heavily urbanized coastal plain
and the Ayalon River
. Loevy succeeded in capturing the world of the Hiriya in its final days, as it was transformed from a dump to a recycling
center and national park. He documented life around the site, and the art that sprouted up from its role—once mocked—as a national compost heap.
Loevy's next documentary film, Letters in the Wind (2001
), was a tribute to noted Israeli actor Yossi Banai
, one of the country's most noted performers and scion of a well-established theatrical family. Banai was particularly close to Nisim Aloni, whose plays featured prominently in Loevy's early films, and he was also close friends with Yaakov Shabtai (Crowned) and Hanoch Levin (The Child Dreams), two artists whose work Loevy also adapted for the screen. By making this film about Banai, it was as if Loevy had captured the artistic pulse of an entire generation that had dominated Israeli theater.
Banai, however, was also known as a singer, and his interpretations of the chanson
s of Jacques Brel
and especially Georges Brassens
in Hebrew (translated by Naomi Shemer
) had endeared him to an even wider public. Banai's music featured prominently in the film, so that the pulse it captured turned into what one reviewer termed "a metronome of Yossi Banai's life."
), based on a script by Galia Oz and Ofer Mashiach. Until now, Loevy's career paralleled the development of public television in Israel. He was intimately connected with Channel 1, which was, for years, Israel's only television network. In November 1993, however, the country launched Channel 2
, its first commercial television station, and within just months of its first broadcast, it was offering a popular alternative to the public station.
In 1997, Loevy approached Moti Kirschenbaum with plans to direct a miniseries about a murder that took place in a fictional television station, Channel 66. Kirschenbaum approved of the project, but the following year Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
decided to replace Kirschenbaum with Uri Porat. Porat had previously served as Director-General of the Israel Broadcasting Authority from 1984 to 1989, and was Director-General when Loevy produced Bread. Porat, however, was also closely aligned with the rightwing of the Israeli political spectrum, and had even referred to one of Hanoch Levin's anti-militaristic early plays as "theatrash". The problem with Loevy's project, he claimed, was the plot and budgetary constraints.
Loevy denies that the script for Murder in Television House (2001
) was a critique of Israeli public television. He had enlisted Batya Gur
, a popular writer of detective fiction
, to tell the story of a murder that took place in Channel 66, a fictional commercial television station. Some critics, however, considered the story to be a settling of accounts with Channel 1. The film revolves around several plot axes, one of which is the story of a veteran director who wants to make a film about the story "Ido and Einam" by the Nobel laureate
Shmuel Yosef Agnon
, but has the project rejected by the petty authorities who manage the station. The director decides to make the film anyways, but his girlfriend, the set designer is soon murdered, initiating a chain of murders at the station. Two factors adding to the complexity of the story is the fact that the murdered woman is also the ex-wife of the director's close friend, the station's senior programming manager, and the Agnon story that he is filming is also a story about a love triangle
.
When he rejected the film, Porat reportedly said, "People will think that there really are murders taking place here. In fact, the film opens with the line, "All of the events described in this film are fictional—except for one", leading the audience to wonder which one it is. That is not, however, the only reference to real events in Israeli television. The Hebrew name of the film, רצח, מצלמים (Retzach, metzalmim, literally, "Murder, we're filming"), is a play on the name of a popular TV show, שקט, מצלמים (Sheket, metzalmim, or "Quiet, we're filming"), and among the subplots are a news story about striking workers (a continuation of the story Loevy began in Bread) (other news stories being covered throughout the film include tensions between religious and secular, men and women, the unemployed and the wealthy, Arabs and Jews, and new immigrants—the detective investigating the murders is a Russian immigrant, who once served in the KGB
and the FBI).
What makes the film most shocking, however, is the final discovery that the roots of the murder date back to an incident the Six Day War, when a group of Israeli soldiers massacred 52 Egyptian
prisoners at Ras Sudar
in the Sinai
. Loevy later admitted that this was the one incident in the plot that was not fictional. It was based on an account he had heard from a participant in 1970, while he was serving in the reserves. He went on to report the incident to the military authorities and, in consequence, was removed from his unit. He had long wanted to make a film about the incident, but lacked the evidence to prove conclusively what had happened. Loevy later said:
When Porat refused to produce the story, Loevy resigned from Channel 1. It was the end of a 31-year relationship. Channel 2 bought the rights to the series and Loevy directed it for them. Nevertheless, Loevy insists, "I had no intention of settling accounts with Channel 1. I love them like family." But the underlying story behind Murder in Television House had haunted him almost since he began working at Israeli television. It was a story that he needed to tell, and it made no difference where he told it.
Since then, Loevy made one more television drama, Skin (2005
), written by Shoham Smith, about a former stripper
who works in the Diamond Exchange District
in Ramat Gan, gets involved in a murder. Throughout most of the decade, however, his work focused on documentary films.
In 2007, Loevy also served as producer for the film The Woman From The Bubble about a young woman who translates sign language
. It was an emotional project for Ram Loevy, not least because the film's director, Netta Loevy, was his daughter.
. It is an intimate look at Arab life in the city of Jaffa both in 1947 and today.
, a school of filmmaking developed by Argentine
filmmakers Fernando Solanas
and Octavio Getino
, which rejects film as a means of propagating bourgeoisie, capitalist values and neocolonialism
, especially as exemplified by Hollywood.
Works like Bread had the same impact on his audience as Vittorio de Sica
's Sciuscià raising awareness of the social conditions facing the underclass, and the steps—often radical and always original—they take to survive. At the same time, however, many of Loevy's films, both dramas and documentaries—are intense political stories in the mold of Costa Gavras's Z
or Godard
's Le Petit Soldat (banned in France until 1963 for its depiction of torture).
Yet Loevy is also a literary classicist, who turns to the theater for some of his finest works. This is reflected in his collaboration with leading Israeli playwrights such as Nisim Aloni and Hanoch Levin, and his adaptation of the works of such authors as S. Yizhar, Yaakov Shabtai, and even, in Murder at Television House, Shmuel Yosef Agnon. In this sense Loevy's work echoes Olivier
's Henry V
, Derek Jarman
's The Tempest, or Gus Van Sant
's My Own Private Idaho
, which was based on William Shakespeare
's Henry IV, Part I, or even Erich von Stroheim
's Greed
, an adaptation of Frank Norris
's McTeague
in its efforts to relay contemporary messages through classic literature. And yet, he is not afraid to tackle popular culture as well, as seen in his collaboration with detective novelist Batya Gur and his documentary about Yossi Banai. In that sense, his work is highly reminiscent of that of Dennis Potter
, who also chose television as his preferred medium.
In an interview, Loevy said:
Timeline of the introduction of television in countries
This is a list of when the first publicly announced television broadcasts occurred in the mentioned countries. Non-public field tests and closed circuit demonstrations are not included....
. In a career spanning forty years, he has written and directed some of the most prominent and subversive television movies and documentaries, challenging the status quo on such issues as class conflict
Class conflict
Class conflict is the tension or antagonism which exists in society due to competing socioeconomic interests between people of different classes....
, torture
Torture
Torture is the act of inflicting severe pain as a means of punishment, revenge, forcing information or a confession, or simply as an act of cruelty. Throughout history, torture has often been used as a method of political re-education, interrogation, punishment, and coercion...
, the prison system, and the Israel-Palestinian conflict. Despite his reputation as a gadfly, facing off against the Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
i establishment
The Establishment
The Establishment is a term used to refer to a visible dominant group or elite that holds power or authority in a nation. The term suggests a closed social group which selects its own members...
, Loevy was awarded the Israel Prize
Israel Prize
The Israel Prize is an award handed out by the State of Israel and is largely regarded as the state's highest honor. It is presented annually, on Israeli Independence Day, in a state ceremony in Jerusalem, in the presence of the President, the Prime Minister, the Knesset chairperson, and the...
in Communication, Radio and Television in 1993 for his lifework.
Loevy is currently Professor Emeritus of Cinema and Television at Tel Aviv University
Tel Aviv University
Tel Aviv University is a public university located in Ramat Aviv, Tel Aviv, Israel. With nearly 30,000 students, TAU is Israel's largest university.-History:...
.
Early life
Loevy was the son of Theodor Loevy, a journalistJournalism
Journalism is the practice of investigation and reporting of events, issues and trends to a broad audience in a timely fashion. Though there are many variations of journalism, the ideal is to inform the intended audience. Along with covering organizations and institutions such as government and...
and his wife Elisa, originally from Poland. His father was the editor of the Danziger Echo
Danziger Echo
Danziger Echo was a Zionist Jewish newspaper in the Free City of Danzig, edited by Theodor Loevy and Paul Bermann. The publication of Danziger Echo was stopped on July 18, 1936, as the government of the Free City issued a ten-month suspension of the paper....
, a prominent Jewish newspaper
Jewish newspaper
A Jewish newspaper refers to a newspaper created by or for Jews. They include daily or weekly titles published in English, Hebrew, Yiddish, or other languages, of a variety of political and religious orientations...
in the Free City of Danzig
Free City of Danzig
The Free City of Danzig was a semi-autonomous city-state that existed between 1920 and 1939, consisting of the Baltic Sea port of Danzig and surrounding areas....
, who had been jailed for publishing anti-Nazi
Anti-fascism
Anti-fascism is the opposition to fascist ideologies, groups and individuals, such as that of the resistance movements during World War II. The related term antifa derives from Antifaschismus, which is German for anti-fascism; it refers to individuals and groups on the left of the political...
articles in his paper. Upon his release he fled to Poland, but that country later expelled him in the months leading up to World War II, under pressure from the authorities in Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
. He and his wife arrived in Palestine just three months before Ram Loevy was born.
Loevy grew up in Tel Aviv, where he attended the Carmel School and Municipal High School A. As a boy, he was active in the Scouts and in the paramilitary Gadna
Gadna (Israel)
Gadna is an Israeli military program to prepare youth for their mandatory military service in the Israel Defense Forces or Border Police. A one week program of discipline and military learning run mostly by soldiers of the Nahal infantry brigade, as well as by soldiers recruited and trained...
program, in which high school age boys and girls received paramilitary training in preparation for their military service. It was in the Scouts that he met his wife Zipora. Upon being drafted to the Israel Defense Forces
Israel Defense Forces
The Israel Defense Forces , commonly known in Israel by the Hebrew acronym Tzahal , are the military forces of the State of Israel. They consist of the ground forces, air force and navy. It is the sole military wing of the Israeli security forces, and has no civilian jurisdiction within Israel...
, he served in the Nahal
Nahal
Nahal is an Israel Defense Forces infantry brigade. Historically, it refers to a program that combines military service and establishment of new agricultural settlements, often in outlying areas...
unit, combining military training
Military education and training
Military education and training is a process which intends to establish and improve the capabilities of military personnel in their respective roles....
with agricultural work
Agriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...
on kibbutz
Kibbutz
A kibbutz is a collective community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. Today, farming has been partly supplanted by other economic branches, including industrial plants and high-tech enterprises. Kibbutzim began as utopian communities, a combination of socialism and Zionism...
im throughout the country. He trained on Kibbutz Gal'ed
Gal'ed
Gal'ed is a kibbutz in northern Israel. Located in the Plain of Manasseh with an area of 14,500 dunams, it falls under the jurisdiction of Megiddo Regional Council. In 2006 it had a population of 405....
in northern Israel, near the large Israeli Arab
Arab citizens of Israel
Arab citizens of Israel refers to citizens of Israel who are not Jewish, and whose cultural and linguistic heritage or ethnic identity is Arab....
town of Umm al-Fahm
Umm al-Fahm
Umm al-Fahm is a city in the Haifa District of Israel with a population of 43,300, nearly all of whom are Arab citizens of Israel. The city is situated on the Umm al-Fahm mountain ridge, the highest point of which is Mt. Iskander , overlooking Wadi Ara...
, and later served on Kibbutz Sde Boker
Sde Boker
Sde Boker is a kibbutz in the Negev desert of southern Israel. Best known as the retirement home of Israel's first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, it falls under the jurisdiction of Ramat HaNegev Regional Council.-History:...
in the Negev
Negev
The Negev is a desert and semidesert region of southern Israel. The Arabs, including the native Bedouin population of the region, refer to the desert as al-Naqab. The origin of the word Neghebh is from the Hebrew root denoting 'dry'...
, where David Ben Gurion had retired. In the army, he trained as a paratrooper.
Even then, Loevy exhibited the same tendencies that challenged the authority of the establishment. Despite his ties to the military and the kibbutz movement, as a young Scout leader, he joined a group of movement activists
Activism
Activism consists of intentional efforts to bring about social, political, economic, or environmental change. Activism can take a wide range of forms from writing letters to newspapers or politicians, political campaigning, economic activism such as boycotts or preferentially patronizing...
that first sought to expand the narrow focus of that group's educational policies from an emphasis on communal living
Intentional community
An intentional community is a planned residential community designed to have a much higher degree of teamwork than other communities. The members of an intentional community typically hold a common social, political, religious, or spiritual vision and often follow an alternative lifestyle. They...
to broader humanitarian
Humanitarianism
In its most general form, humanitarianism is an ethic of kindness, benevolence and sympathy extended universally and impartially to all human beings. Humanitarianism has been an evolving concept historically but universality is a common element in its evolution...
objectives. Years later, these changes were adopted by the national scouting movement.
Early career in radio and television
Upon completing his military service, Loevy planned to pursue a career as an economistEconomics
Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...
. He attended the Hebrew University
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem ; ; abbreviated HUJI) is Israel's second-oldest university, after the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. The Hebrew University has three campuses in Jerusalem and one in Rehovot. The world's largest Jewish studies library is located on its Edmond J...
in Jerusalem, where he majored in Economics and Political Science
Political science
Political Science is a social science discipline concerned with the study of the state, government and politics. Aristotle defined it as the study of the state. It deals extensively with the theory and practice of politics, and the analysis of political systems and political behavior...
. At the same time though, he also dabbled in theater
Theatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
by participating in student productions, and worked at the national Voice of Israel
Kol Yisrael
Kol Yisrael is Israel's public domestic and international radio service, operated as a division of the Israel Broadcasting Authority.-History:...
radio station as a program editor, actor, producer, director, and skit-writer.
He also made his first foray into film as the assistant director for a documentary film, Sand Screen by Baruch Dinar, with noted American journalist Drew Pearson
Drew Pearson (journalist)
Andrew Russell Pearson , known professionally as Drew Pearson, was one of the best-known American columnists of his day, noted for his muckraking syndicated newspaper column "Washington Merry-Go-Round," in which he attacked various public persons, sometimes with little or no objective proof for his...
. This was immediately followed by work on the documentary I Ahmad (1966
1966 in film
The year 1966 in film involved some significant events.-Events:Animation legend Walter Disney, well known for his creation of Mickey Mouse, died in 15 December 1966 of acute circulatory collapse following a diagnosis of, and surgery for, lung cancer...
), directed by Avshalom Katz, for which he served as the executive producer and co-screenwriter. The film told the story of an Arab
Arab
Arab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...
laborer's journey from the Triangle
Triangle (Israel)
The Triangle , formerly referred to as the Little Triangle, is a concentration of Israeli Arab towns and villages adjacent to the Green Line, located in the eastern Sharon plain among the Samarian foothills; this area is located within the easternmost boundaries of both the Center District and...
to Tel Aviv. These were two areas Loevy knew well: he had been raised in Tel Aviv, and Kibbutz Gal'ed, where he had spent part of his military service, was located on the outskirts of the Triangle.
Film studies
Upon completing these two projects, Loevy decided to shift the focus of his studies from Economics to Film. In 1967, upon completing his degree, he traveled to London to attend the London Film SchoolLondon Film School
The London Film School is a private film school in London and is situated in a converted brewery in Covent Garden, London, close to a hub of the UK film industry based in Soho. The LFS was founded in 1956 by Bob Dunbar as The London School of Film Technique...
(then known at the London School of Film Technique). Rather than attempting to create a national cinema
National cinema
Like other film theory or film criticism terms , the term "national cinema" is hard to define, and its meaning is debated by film scholars and critics. National cinema is a term sometimes used in film theory and film criticism to describe the films associated with a specific country...
, the school focused on teaching a craft-based culture of excellence, and brought together students from dozens of countries around the world for hands-on training in the art of filmmaking
Filmmaking
Filmmaking is the process of making a film, from an initial story, idea, or commission, through scriptwriting, casting, shooting, directing, editing, and screening the finished product before an audience that may result in a theatrical release or television program...
.
Loevy's stay in London was cut short, however, by events back home. In June 1967, the Six-Day War
Six-Day War
The Six-Day War , also known as the June War, 1967 Arab-Israeli War, or Third Arab-Israeli War, was fought between June 5 and 10, 1967, by Israel and the neighboring states of Egypt , Jordan, and Syria...
erupted, and Loevy returned to Israel as a soldier. Soon after the war though, he returned to London to continue his studies and worked as an assistant director at Elstree Studios
Elstree Studios
"Elstree Studios" refers to any of several film studios that were based in the towns of Borehamwood and Elstree in Hertfordshire, England, since film production begun in 1927.-Name:...
for the British espionage
Espionage
Espionage or spying involves an individual obtaining information that is considered secret or confidential without the permission of the holder of the information. Espionage is inherently clandestine, lest the legitimate holder of the information change plans or take other countermeasures once it...
/science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
adventure series The Champions
The Champions
The Champions is a British espionage/science fiction/occult detective fiction adventure series consisting of 30 episodes broadcast on the UK network ITV during 1968–1969, produced by Lew Grade's ITC Entertainment production company...
. At the same time, he was also an announcer for the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
's Hebrew-language department.
At the Israel Broadcasting Authority
In 1968, while in London, Loevy proposed to create a documentary film about the many rifts in Israeli society. Though the BBC expressed interest in the project, Loevy abandoned it in order to return to Israel and help the Israel Broadcasting AuthorityIsrael Broadcasting Authority
Israel Broadcasting Authority is Israel's state broadcasting network.It grew out of the radio station Kol Yisrael, which made its first broadcast as an independent station on . The name of the organisation operating Kol Yisrael was changed to Israel Broadcasting Service in 1951...
launch the country's first attempt at television broadcasting, Channel 1
Channel 1 (Israel)
Channel 1 is one of the oldest television channels in Israel and one of five terrestrial channels in the country...
, which began broadcasting on 2 May 1968. In addition to his work on the new channel's weekly shows, he also directed a number of documentary films for it:
- BarricadesBarricades (documentary film)Barricades was one of the first documentary films created for Israeli television. It tells the story of two families, one Jewish and the other Palestinian, who both lost children during Israel's War of Independence, known to Palestinians as the Naqba, or "Catastrophe." The film, directed by Ram...
(19691969 in filmThe year 1969 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* Last year for prize giving at the Venice Film Festival until it is revived in 1980...
), which examined the Arab-Israel conflict from the perspective of two families, one Jewish and one Palestinian. - Israel in the '80s, (2 films, 19711971 in filmThe year 1971 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*February 8 - Bob Dylan's hour long documentary film, Eat the Document, premieres at New York's Academy of Music...
), speculating on the future of Israeli educationEducation in IsraelEducation in Israel refers to the comprehensive education system of Israel. Expenditure on education accounts for approximately 10% of GDP, and most schools are subsidized by the state.-Educational tracks:...
. - Don't Think Twice, (19721972 in filmThe year 1972 in film involved some significant events.-Top grossing films :- Awards :Academy Awards:*Avanti!, directed by Billy Wilder, starring Jack Lemmon and Juliet MillsB...
), about preparations by the Habima Theatre for a new stage production by Nisim AloniNisim Aloni-Biography:Aloni was born in Mandate Palestine to a poor family in Florentin, a neighborhood in south Tel Aviv which later became an inspiration for his work....
. The film was nominated for the prestigious Prix ItaliaPrix ItaliaThe Prix Italia is an international Italian television, radio-broadcasting and Website award. It was established in 1948 by RAI - Radiotelevisione Italiana in Capri...
for Radio and Television. - Time Out (19751975 in filmThe year 1975 in film involved some significant events, with Steven Spielberg's thriller Jaws topping the box office.-Events:*March 26 - The film version of The Who's Tommy premieres in London....
), on encounters between young Arabs and Jews.
Already in these early works, Loevy focused on two themes that would dominate his later, better known projects: the tense relationship between Arabs and Jews in Israel, and the role of education and art in shaping a society. His next documentary would introduce another key theme: the inequities of class disparity and discrimination, not only between Jews and Arabs in Israel, but also among Jewish Israelis.
- Second Generation Poor, (19761976 in filmThe year 1976 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*March 22 - Filming begins on George Lucas' Star Wars science fiction film...
), was a two-part series that offered a chilling look at the effects of poverty in Israel.
These themes would reappear in his later documentaries and in the full-length feature films for television with which he would be most identified. At this time, however, Loevy did not just focus on the major issues facing Israeli society. He saw himself as an educator, with a special place in his heart for children. It was in this spirit that, in 1971, he directed seven short films for children, based on the children's poetry
Children's poetry
Children's poetry is poetry written for, a stupid reson as she says or appropriate for children. This may include folk poetry ; poetry written intentionally for young people Children's poetry is poetry written for, a stupid reson as she says or appropriate for children. This may include folk...
of Yiddish
Yiddish language
Yiddish is a High German language of Ashkenazi Jewish origin, spoken throughout the world. It developed as a fusion of German dialects with Hebrew, Aramaic, Slavic languages and traces of Romance languages...
writer Kadya Moldovsky.
First features for television
By 1972, Loevy was ready to use drama to raise many of the issues that concerned him. His first attempts at drama were very literary, though they were hardly as iconoclastic as his later works. Nonetheless, they set a new tone for Israeli television drama, showing that it was not afraid to tackle major issues facing the society.These films can be divided into two groups: two films released in 1972, and two released in 1975. They are:
- Rose Water from Port Said (19721972 in filmThe year 1972 in film involved some significant events.-Top grossing films :- Awards :Academy Awards:*Avanti!, directed by Billy Wilder, starring Jack Lemmon and Juliet MillsB...
), based on a story by Gideon Talpaz, tells of a landlady who runs a boarding houseBoarding houseA boarding house, is a house in which lodgers rent one or more rooms for one or more nights, and sometimes for extended periods of weeks, months and years. The common parts of the house are maintained, and some services, such as laundry and cleaning, may be supplied. They normally provide "bed...
in Jerusalem at the time of the British Mandate. One day, she receives a Black slave from the SudanSudanSudan , officially the Republic of the Sudan , is a country in North Africa, sometimes considered part of the Middle East politically. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the...
as a gift. Though the film was set in the relatively distant past, in 1932, this first attempt at drama already hints at two of the major themes that appear throughout Loevy's later work: class distinctions and ethnic differences. - The Fifth Hand, also from 1972, breaks from the serious nature of Loevy's themes to tell the story of a group of people addicted to the game of bridgeContract bridgeContract bridge, usually known simply as bridge, is a trick-taking card game using a standard deck of 52 playing cards played by four players in two competing partnerships with partners sitting opposite each other around a small table...
. Nevertheless, his insights into the role that leisure activities play in people's lives would be echoed over thirty years later in one of his most riveting documentaries, Sakhnin, My Life, about the Bnei Sakhnin football club from the Arab town of SakhninSakhninSakhnin is a city in Israel's North District. It is located in the Lower Galilee, about east of Acre. Sakhnin was declared a city in 1995. Its population of 25,100 is Arab, mostly Muslim with a sizable Christian minority. It is located on the site of the ancient Jewish town Sikhnin, which...
. - The Bride and the Butterfly Hunter (19741974 in filmThe year 1974 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*February 7 - Blazing Saddles is released in the USA.*August 7 - Peter Wolf, lead singer of The J...
) is a quirky, surrealisticSurrealismSurrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....
film version of a play by Nisim AloniNisim Aloni-Biography:Aloni was born in Mandate Palestine to a poor family in Florentin, a neighborhood in south Tel Aviv which later became an inspiration for his work....
about a bride who flees her wedding and a clerk who flees his humdrum existence by escaping to the park every Wednesday afternoon to hunt—and release—butterflies. The encounter between the two takes place in a park, where political propagandaPropagandaPropaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....
is broadcast over a loudspeaker system. Though this is not integral to the story, it indicates that even in the most whimsical encounters it is impossible to escape the overbearing presence of political forces exploiting the conflicts in Israel for their own advantage. This film was selected to represent Israel at the Prix Italia. - Stella (19751975 in filmThe year 1975 in film involved some significant events, with Steven Spielberg's thriller Jaws topping the box office.-Events:*March 26 - The film version of The Who's Tommy premieres in London....
) is a love story about an affair between a pianoPianoThe piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
teacher and a messenger boy. It was also selected to represent Israel at the Prix Italia.
Khirbet Khize
In 1978, Loevy was propelled into the public spotlight for his dramatization of the novella Khirbet Khize (חרבת חיזעה) by S. YizharS. Yizhar
Yizhar Smilansky , better known by his pen name S. Yizhar , was an Israeli writer and a great innovator in modern Hebrew literature.His pen name was given to him by the poet and editor Yitzhak Lamdan, when in 1938 he published Yizhar's first story Ephraim Goes Back to Alfalfa in his literary...
. The story, written in May 1949, tells of how Israeli soldiers expelled the Palestinian inhabitants of the fictional village of Khirbet Khize from their homes toward the end of Israel's War of Independence
1948 Arab-Israeli War
The 1948 Arab–Israeli War, known to Israelis as the War of Independence or War of Liberation The war commenced after the termination of the British Mandate for Palestine and the creation of an independent Israel at midnight on 14 May 1948 when, following a period of civil war, Arab armies invaded...
. Though controversial, the story was well-known, and had been incorporated into the Israeli curriculum. S. Yizhar was a highly respected author, a recipient of the Israel Prize
Israel Prize
The Israel Prize is an award handed out by the State of Israel and is largely regarded as the state's highest honor. It is presented annually, on Israeli Independence Day, in a state ceremony in Jerusalem, in the presence of the President, the Prime Minister, the Knesset chairperson, and the...
, and served in the Knesset
Knesset
The Knesset is the unicameral legislature of Israel, located in Givat Ram, Jerusalem.-Role in Israeli Government :The legislative branch of the Israeli government, the Knesset passes all laws, elects the President and Prime Minister , approves the cabinet, and supervises the work of the government...
from 1949 to 1967.
Loevy first proposed the dramatization of the story in 1972, but was rejected by the Israel Broadcasting Authority, ostensibly because the script he had written was poor, though, more likely, for political reasons. He recommended the story again in 1977, this time with a script by Daniella Carmi, hoping that the film would be used to mark Israel's 30th Independence Day. This time the film was approved, and he was given a budget of 700,000 Israeli liras—an enormous sum at the time. He filmed in the West Bank—all of the Israeli Arab villages had television antennas that marred the view—and completed the film in August of that year. There was some debate over whether the film should be screened because of its controversial nature, but after a screening before the entire board of the IBA, it was decided to go ahead.
By this time, however, a new, right-wing government headed by Menachem Begin
Menachem Begin
' was a politician, founder of Likud and the sixth Prime Minister of the State of Israel. Before independence, he was the leader of the Zionist militant group Irgun, the Revisionist breakaway from the larger Jewish paramilitary organization Haganah. He proclaimed a revolt, on 1 February 1944,...
was voted into power in 1977
Israeli legislative election, 1977
The Elections for the ninth Knesset were held on 17 May 1977. For the first time in Israeli political history, the right-wing, led by Likud, won the election, ending almost 30 years of rule by the left-wing Alignment and its predecessor, Mapai...
, while the film was still under production. Then Anwar Sadat
Anwar Sadat
Muhammad Anwar al-Sadat was the third President of Egypt, serving from 15 October 1970 until his assassination by fundamentalist army officers on 6 October 1981...
visited Jerusalem, and people from across the political spectrum began to question whether it should be screened, given the sensitivity of potential peace negotiations. Khirbet Khize was originally planned to be aired on 16 January 1978, but on that day the joint Israeli-Egyptian Political Committee first met in Jerusalem, and it was deemed inappropriate to raise such a controversial issue.
When the talks broke down that February, it was decided to screen the film only in the context of a political talk show, so that people from across the spectrum could engage in a public debate about it. This was not satisfactory to two members of the Knesset, representing the Labor and the ultra-Orthodox Agudat Yisrael parties. Though a decision was made to reconvene the IBA board to make a final decision, two members, representing the Likud and National Religious
National Religious Party
The National Religious Party ) was a political party in Israel representing the religious Zionist movement. Formed in 1956, at the time of its dissolution in 2008, it was the second oldest surviving party in the country after Agudat Yisrael, and was part of every government coalition until 1992...
parties were vocally opposed. In the end, Minister of Education Zevulon Hammer stepped in and blocked the film from being aired at all.
This prompted a bitter debate in Israel, with Knesset member Yossi Sarid
Yossi Sarid
Yossi Sarid is a left-wing Israeli news commentator and former politician. He served as a member of the Knesset for the Alignment, Ratz and Meretz between 1974 and 2006...
of the Labor Party declaring that "Freedom of expression
Freedom of speech
Freedom of speech is the freedom to speak freely without censorship. The term freedom of expression is sometimes used synonymously, but includes any act of seeking, receiving and imparting information or ideas, regardless of the medium used...
in Israel has been brought to half mast!". Some reports even claimed that Begin himself was stunned that the film was being censored. In protest at the ministerial decision, IBA employees decided to black out the broadcast for 48 minutes during the night that Khirbet Khize was to be screened (February 6, 1978) to protest the IBA's decision to allow the government to intervene in television broadcasting. The next week, the Board of the IBA finally decided to screen the film.
Khirbet Khize aired on 13 February 1978, and Ram Loevy earned the reputation of an iconoclast who was willing and able to fight a deeply politicized system. This was a turning point in his career, and his later films continued to challenge the established mythology of modern Israel. Immediately after it was aired, the film was shelved until 1993.
The early 1980s
Following the uproar surrounding Hirbet Hiza'a, Loevy made two documentary films about the theatre, and the role it plays in society. It was a theme he had first addressed in Don't Think Twice, but these later films highlighted the role he believed that theatre plays in the political discourse.- Playing Devils, Playing Angels (19791979 in filmThe year 1979 in film involved some significant events.- Major events :* March 5 - Production begins on Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back.* May 25 - Alien, a landmark of the science fiction genre, is released....
) followed a Haifa theatre troupe to the development town of Kiryat ShmonaKiryat ShmonaKiryat Shmona is a city located in the North District of Israel on the western slopes of the Hula Valley on the Lebanese border. The city was named for the eight people, including Joseph Trumpeldor, who died in 1920 defending Tel Hai....
on the tense northern border with LebanonLebanonLebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...
. The border town had been the site of a massacreKiryat Shmona massacreThe Kiryat Shmona massacre was an attack by three members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - General Command on civilians in the Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona on 11 April 1974 which resulted in 18 deaths.-The attack:...
of eighteen people (including nine children) in 1974, and had long been the target of Katyusha rocket attacks from across the border. What distinguished this film however, was its depiction of the encounter between volunteers from the relatively affluent cities and what became known as the "Second Israel": impoverished Mizrahi JewsMizrahi JewsMizrahi Jews or Mizrahiyim, , also referred to as Adot HaMizrach are Jews descended from the Jewish communities of the Middle East, North Africa and the Caucasus...
of Middle Eastern and North African descent. Attitudes toward this underclass would emerge as a major theme in Loevy's work throughout the decade and beyond.
- Nebuchadnezzar in Caesarea (19801980 in film- Events :* May 21 - Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back is released and is the biggest grosser of the year ....
), about a performance of Giuseppe VerdiGiuseppe VerdiGiuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century...
's operaOperaOpera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
NabuccoNabuccoNabucco is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Temistocle Solera, based on the Biblical story and the 1836 play by Auguste Anicet-Bourgeois and Francis Cornue...
by the Deutsche Oper BerlinDeutsche Oper BerlinThe Deutsche Oper Berlin is an opera company located in the Charlottenburg district of Berlin, Germany. The resident building is also home to the Berlin State Ballet.-History:...
at the ancient RomanRoman architectureAncient Roman architecture adopted certain aspects of Ancient Greek architecture, creating a new architectural style. The Romans were indebted to their Etruscan neighbors and forefathers who supplied them with a wealth of knowledge essential for future architectural solutions, such as hydraulics...
amphitheatreAmphitheatreAn amphitheatre is an open-air venue used for entertainment and performances.There are two similar, but distinct, types of structure for which the word "amphitheatre" is used: Ancient Roman amphitheatres were large central performance spaces surrounded by ascending seating, and were commonly used...
in Caesarea. The conflux of symbolism underlying this performance was not lost on anyone: The opera tells the story of Nebuchadnezzar, who destroyed the biblicalBibleThe Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
Kingdom of JudahKingdom of JudahThe Kingdom of Judah was a Jewish state established in the Southern Levant during the Iron Age. It is often referred to as the "Southern Kingdom" to distinguish it from the northern Kingdom of Israel....
. It was performed in a theatre built by the RomansRoman EmpireThe Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
, who destroyed Judah's successor state, the HasmoneanHasmoneanThe Hasmonean dynasty , was the ruling dynasty of Judea and surrounding regions during classical antiquity. Between c. 140 and c. 116 BCE, the dynasty ruled semi-autonomously from the Seleucids in the region of Judea...
kingdom of JudeaJudeaJudea or Judæa was the name of the mountainous southern part of the historic Land of Israel from the 8th century BCE to the 2nd century CE, when Roman Judea was renamed Syria Palaestina following the Jewish Bar Kokhba revolt.-Etymology:The...
, by the successor generation of Nazi Germany, which perpetrated the Holocaust against the Jewish people, successors of Judah and Judea, in their own, newly established homeland. The nationalist ariaAriaAn aria in music was originally any expressive melody, usually, but not always, performed by a singer. The term is now used almost exclusively to describe a self-contained piece for one voice usually with orchestral accompaniment...
"Va, pensieroVa, pensieroVa, pensiero is a chorus from the third act of Nabucco by Giuseppe Verdi, with words by Temistocle Solera, inspired by Psalm 137...
!"—a highlight of the opera—had especial significance for the "captive" audience. The line O mia patria, si bella e perduta ("O my country, so lovely and so lost"), sung by Jewish exiles, particularly resonated with the audience. In another especially poignant scene, the opera's German producer apologized profusely to a group of Jewish extras for asking them to play Babylonians, while German performers played persecuted Jews.
But Loevy could not ignore the impact that contemporary Israeli literature
Israeli literature
Israeli literature is literature written in the State of Israel by Israelis. Most works classed as Israeli literature are written in the Hebrew language, although some Israeli authors write in Yiddish, English, Arabic and Russian...
might have on the country if it was adopted to a more populist medium like television. He turned back to literature in his next project.
- Indian in the Sun (1981) was based on a short story by Israeli journalist and author Adam BaruchAdam BaruchBaruch Meir Rosenblum , better known by the pen name Adam Baruch, was an Israeli journalist, newspaper editor, writer and art critic.-Biography:...
, with a script by Dita Guery (with Micha Levtov and Ram Loevy). In Playing Devils, Playing Angels, Loevy examined the relationship between affluent, urban Israelis and the "Second Israel" as a documentarian. In this film, he dramatized the conflicts and similarities between the two groups. The story revolves around Laufer (played by Doron Nesher), an Israeli soldier from the wealthy suburbs of northern Tel Aviv, who is ordered to accompany another soldier, known only as "the Indian (played by Haim Gerafi)", to prison. "The Indian" was a dark-skinned Cochin JewCochin JewsCochin Jews, also called Malabar Jews , are the oldest group of Jews in India, with roots claimed to date to the time of King Solomon, though historically attested migration dates from the fall of Jerusalem in 70 CE. Historically, they lived in the Kingdom of Cochin in South India, now part of the...
and a moshavnik (though Gerafi himself was an Ethiopian JewBeta IsraelBeta Israel Israel, Ge'ez: ቤተ እስራኤል - Bēta 'Isrā'ēl, modern Bēte 'Isrā'ēl, EAE: "Betä Ǝsraʾel", "Community of Israel" also known as Ethiopian Jews , are the names of Jewish communities which lived in the area of Aksumite and Ethiopian Empires , nowadays divided between Amhara and Tigray...
), and the film highlights the patronizing attitude that Laufer has to his charge. Over time, however, and as the driver (played by Moshe IvgyMoshe IvgyMoshe Ivgy is a Moroccan-born Israeli actor and director.-Biography:Moshe Ivgy was born in Casablanca, Morocco. He was married to actress Irit Sheleg. Their daughter Dana Ivgy is also an actress...
) watches, the two realize that they share a common enemy in the Establishment, and Laufer even offers to help the Indian escape. All the while, the driver watches in trepidation as two extremes of the Israeli social spectrum find that they have more in common than they thought, and begin to forge an alliance between them. The film, which was a powerful indictment of the rifts tearing at the Israeli social fabric, won the Harp of David Award for the best Israeli television production of the year, as well as the Israeli Broadcasting Authority Award.
Loevy spent 1983 in Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...
. He had more than anyone shaped the direction of Israeli television as a medium addressing the country's major social issues, and for this he was awarded a Nieman Fellowship
Nieman Fellowship
The Nieman Fellowship is an award given to mid-career journalists by The Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. This award allows winners time to reflect on their careers and focus on honing their skills....
by Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
. Among the other fellows with whom he studies was Alex Jones
Alex Jones (journalist)
Alex S. Jones is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who has been director of the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government since July 1, 2000. Jones is also a lecturer at the school, occupying the Laurence M...
, winner of the 1987 Pulitzer Prize
1987 Pulitzer Prize
-Journalism:*Public service: Pittsburgh Press**"For reporting by Andrew Schneider and Matthew Brelis which revealed the inadequacy of the FAA's medical screening of airline pilots and led to significant reforms."...
. During his year in Harvard, he studied what he called "epic television", and wrote about how a single night of watching American television
Television in the United States
Television is one of the major mass media of the United States. Ninety-nine percent of American households have at least one television and the majority of households have more than one...
—(Family Business, the news, and The Love Boat
The Love Boat
The Love Boat is an American television series set on a cruise ship, which aired on the ABC Television Network from September 24,1977, until May 24,1986.The show starred Gavin MacLeod as the ship's captain...
, plus commercials) could be compared to a three-act drama
Drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...
by Bertolt Brecht
Bertolt Brecht
Bertolt Brecht was a German poet, playwright, and theatre director.An influential theatre practitioner of the 20th century, Brecht made equally significant contributions to dramaturgy and theatrical production, the latter particularly through the seismic impact of the tours undertaken by the...
. He bemoaned the idea of a politically neutral medium of television, and concluded "Television was almost never neutral. On the rare occasions when it took a stand, (McCarthy
Joseph McCarthy
Joseph Raymond "Joe" McCarthy was an American politician who served as a Republican U.S. Senator from the state of Wisconsin from 1947 until his death in 1957...
, the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
, Watergate
Watergate scandal
The Watergate scandal was a political scandal during the 1970s in the United States resulting from the break-in of the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C., and the Nixon administration's attempted cover-up of its involvement...
), it helped bring a significant change."
Upon returning to Israel, Loevy made a series of four documentary films for Israel TV, PBS
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
, and England's Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
:
- The End of the Bathing Season (1983, for Israel TV), about the present, as seen by archeologists of the future.
- The Buck Stops in Brazil (1983, for PBS), about BrazilBrazilBrazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
's national debtGovernment debtGovernment debt is money owed by a central government. In the US, "government debt" may also refer to the debt of a municipal or local government...
. - Between the River and the Sea (1984, Channel 4) about Rafik Halabi, then a DruzeDruzeThe Druze are an esoteric, monotheistic religious community, found primarily in Syria, Lebanon, Israel, and Jordan, which emerged during the 11th century from Ismailism. The Druze have an eclectic set of beliefs that incorporate several elements from Abrahamic religions, Gnosticism, Neoplatonism...
television correspondent in Israel. - The Million Dollar Scan (1985, PBS/Israel TV coproduction), about the Israeli company Elscint and its magnetic resonance imagingMagnetic resonance imagingMagnetic resonance imaging , nuclear magnetic resonance imaging , or magnetic resonance tomography is a medical imaging technique used in radiology to visualize detailed internal structures...
equipment. In 1972 Elscint was the first Israeli company to have an initial public offeringInitial public offeringAn initial public offering or stock market launch, is the first sale of stock by a private company to the public. It can be used by either small or large companies to raise expansion capital and become publicly traded enterprises...
on NASDAQNASDAQThe NASDAQ Stock Market, also known as the NASDAQ, is an American stock exchange. "NASDAQ" originally stood for "National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations". It is the second-largest stock exchange by market capitalization in the world, after the New York Stock Exchange. As of...
, but in the 1980s, the company suffered a series of severe financial losses that required a government bailout.
At the same time, he was preparing to embark on the project for which he is best known today, a drama about the Second Israel that would shake the country to its core.
Bread (Lehem)
A few years before Loevy left for Harvard, Israel Television commissioned two young scriptwriters, Gilad Evron and Meir Doron, to write a story about the "Second Israel." Loevy had begun to explore this topic in his earlier works such as Indian in the Sun, and when he returned to Israel, he was presented with the first draft of their script. He and the writers spent the next two years rewriting the script and frequently visiting the development townDevelopment town
Development town is a term used to refer to the new settlements that were built in Israel during the 1950s in order to provide permanent housing to a large influx of Jewish refugees from Arab countries, Holocaust survivors from Europe and new immigrants , who arrived to the newly established State...
s of Yeruham
Yeruham
Yeruham is a town in the Southern District of Israel, in the Negev desert. It covers 38,584 dunams and had a population of 9,400 in 2006. It is named after the Biblical Jeroham. The mayor of Yeruham was Amram Mitzna but his term ended in early 2011, and he was succeeded by Michael Bitton of...
, Dimona
Dimona
Dimona is an Israeli city in the Negev desert, to the south of Beersheba and west of the Dead Sea above the Arava valley in the Southern District of Israel. Its population at the end of 2007 was 33,600.-History:...
, and Sderot
Sderot
Sderot is a western Negev city in the Southern District of Israel. According to the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics , at the end of 2009 the city had a total population of 20,700. The city has been an ongoing target of Qassam rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip...
to meet with the local residents whose stories they wanted to tell, and producing sixteen more drafts until the story was finalized.
In an interview, Loevy later explained the significance of these encounters to him:
The gap between rich and poor is enormous in a country that was once the most egalitarian nation in the world. In the youth movements, ZionismZionismZionism is a Jewish political movement that, in its broadest sense, has supported the self-determination of the Jewish people in a sovereign Jewish national homeland. Since the establishment of the State of Israel, the Zionist movement continues primarily to advocate on behalf of the Jewish state...
was seen as the Jewish way of achieving social justiceSocial justiceSocial justice generally refers to the idea of creating a society or institution that is based on the principles of equality and solidarity, that understands and values human rights, and that recognizes the dignity of every human being. The term and modern concept of "social justice" was coined by...
that would encompass the whole world. That ideal has been shattered. Now we have the pretension of being an open and attentive socialistSocialismSocialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
welfare stateWelfare stateA welfare state is a "concept of government in which the state plays a key role in the protection and promotion of the economic and social well-being of its citizens. It is based on the principles of equality of opportunity, equitable distribution of wealth, and public responsibility for those...
, but in fact, that message only comes from a single direction. The system only responds to those who shout. Those who are silent remain on the outside. The basic human element has disappeared from the system.
Loevy was determined to tell the story of the silenced masses, and he was determined to do it not by shouting but by silence. At a 2006 retrospective of his work, Loevy was introduced as an artist who "creates a silent scream in a soft but overwhelming voice." The result was his film Bread (לחם).
The film tells the story of a Job
Job (Biblical figure)
Job is the central character of the Book of Job in the Hebrew Bible. Job is listed as a prophet of God in the Qur'an.- Book of Job :The Book of Job begins with an introduction to Job's character — he is described as a blessed man who lives righteously...
-like character, Shlomo Elmaliach (played by Rami Danon), who loses his job at his town's local bakery when it is forced to close. Rather than join the other unemployed
Unemployment
Unemployment , as defined by the International Labour Organization, occurs when people are without jobs and they have actively sought work within the past four weeks...
protesters, Elmaliach locks himself in his home and launches a very personal hunger strike
Hunger strike
A hunger strike is a method of non-violent resistance or pressure in which participants fast as an act of political protest, or to provoke feelings of guilt in others, usually with the objective to achieve a specific goal, such as a policy change. Most hunger strikers will take liquids but not...
. At first people come to visit him at home, and there's even a rumor that television reporters might show up (quickly dismissed by Elmaliach's friend Zaguri, "They only come when there's a ruckus.") Gradually, even Elmaliach's friends abandon him, and he ends up dragging his family down with him. A son (played by Moshe Ivgy
Moshe Ivgy
Moshe Ivgy is a Moroccan-born Israeli actor and director.-Biography:Moshe Ivgy was born in Casablanca, Morocco. He was married to actress Irit Sheleg. Their daughter Dana Ivgy is also an actress...
) seeks radical solutions to poverty, a daughter (played by Etti Ankri
Etti Ankri
Esther "Etti" Ankri is an Israeli singer-songwriter. She is a former Female Singer of the Year in Israel, and has also performed in the United States, England, and India. Ankri has been called a "rock genius", the "poet of Israeli spirituality," and "the contemporary voice of.....
) who escaped to Tel Aviv to study returns home and takes a job on a production line, and Elmaliach's wife (played by Rivka Bechar) takes a job as a seamstress. At the end of the film, the factory is reopened as a result of all the protests, but by then it is too late for Shlomo Elmaliach.
When Bread was aired in 1986, unemployment was skyrocketing in Israel after a period of relative affluence, and even the Israel Broadcasting Authority had just fired all of its contractors. The social impact was of the film was felt throughout the country, with one critic calling it a "punch in the stomach."
But the carefully crafted story, which bridged the gap between drama and documentary, had enormous international appeal as well. That year it was awarded the Prix Italia
Prix Italia
The Prix Italia is an international Italian television, radio-broadcasting and Website award. It was established in 1948 by RAI - Radiotelevisione Italiana in Capri...
for television fiction. According to the prize's jury:
Bread is more than the story of a family on the fringes of the Israeli society. It is a commentary on the universal problems of unemployment, pride, stress, and the nature of human life.
Life after Lehem
In many ways, Loevy's film Lehem ("Bread") shifted the dialogue within Israeli society. Since the founding of the state almost forty years earlier, the focus had been on Israel's relationship with its neighbors and the struggle to live in peace with them. After forty years, however, it finally seemed that peace might finally be reached. In 1979 Israel signed a peace treaty with EgyptEgypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
, and the two countries maintained relations even despite the First Intifada
First Intifada
The First Intifada was a Palestinian uprising against the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian Territories. The uprising began in the Jabalia refugee camp and quickly spread throughout Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem....
that was raging in the Occupied Territories. Then in 1987, Foreign Minister
Foreign Affairs Minister of Israel
The Foreign Affairs Minister of Israel is the political head of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The position is one of the most important in the Israeli cabinet after Prime Minister and Defense Minister...
Shimon Peres
Shimon Peres
GCMG is the ninth President of the State of Israel. Peres served twice as the eighth Prime Minister of Israel and once as Interim Prime Minister, and has been a member of 12 cabinets in a political career spanning over 66 years...
signed the London Agreement
Peres-Hussein London Agreement
The London Agreement between King Hussein of Jordan and Israeli Foreign Affairs Minister Shimon Peres, was signed during a secret meeting held at the residence of Lord Mishcon in London on April 11, 1987...
with King Hussein of Jordan
Hussein of Jordan
Hussein bin Talal was the third King of Jordan from the abdication of his father, King Talal, in 1952, until his death. Hussein's rule extended through the Cold War and four decades of Arab-Israeli conflict...
, outlining the framework for an international peace conference to be hosted by the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
.
As the prospects for peace emerged, however, Israelis were now able to look inward and examine the rifts within their own society—rifts that had often been shunted to the side because of the looming security situation. There had been efforts to examine these problems as early as the 1970s, with the emergence of the Black Panther movement, but it was only in the mid-1980s that these problems surfaced at the forefront of the Israeli political dialogue. Much of the shift can be attributed to Loevy, who raised the issue through the popular medium of a television drama. It was therefore inevitable that Loevy would examine the impact of the most popular arts—music
Music of Israel
The music of Israel is a combination of Jewish and non-Jewish music traditions that have come together over the course of a century to create a distinctive musical culture. For more than 100 years, musicians have sought original stylistic elements that would define the emerging national spirit...
, film
Cinema of Israel
Cinema of Israel refers to movie production in Israel since its founding in 1948. Most Israeli films are produced in Hebrew. Israel has been nominated for more Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film than any other country in the Middle East....
, and literature
Israeli literature
Israeli literature is literature written in the State of Israel by Israelis. Most works classed as Israeli literature are written in the Hebrew language, although some Israeli authors write in Yiddish, English, Arabic and Russian...
—on a society in transition.
Loevy examined the role of music and film in society in two documentary films:
- Voice of the Multitude (19871987 in film-Events:*January 31 - The Cure for Insomnia premieres at The School of the Art Institute in Chicago, Illinois, to officially become the world's longest film according to Guinness World Records....
) looked at the role that popular choirChoirA choir, chorale or chorus is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform.A body of singers who perform together as a group is called a choir or chorus...
s had played in defining the national soundtrack. - In the Seventh Sky (19911991 in filmThe year 1991 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*April 28 - Bonnie Raitt marries actor Michael O'Keefe in New York* Terminator 2: Judgment Day, became one of the landmarks for science fiction action films with its groundbreaking visual effects from Industrial Light & Magic.*November...
), more properly described as a training filmTraining filmA training film is a form of educational film – a short subject documentary movie, that provides an introduction to a topic. Both narrative documentary and dramatisation styles may be used, sometimes both in the same production...
, produced for Israel's Ministry of Education and Culture, offered a glimpse into how films are created by combining methods, tools, and human emotions to create an illusion of reality.
Rather than tackle literature the same way, Loevy chose instead to adapt major literary works to the medium of television. In each of these, the works themselves tackled major issues facing Israeli society. In these cases, Loevy saw himself as a conduit by which he could bring the work of leading Israeli authors and playwrights and the issues they tackled to a broader public.
- Winter Games (19881988 in film-Top grossing films :- Awards :Academy Awards:* Act of Piracy* Action Jackson, starring Carl Weathers, Craig T. Nelson, Vanity, Sharon Stone* The Adventures of Baron Munchausen* Akira* Alice...
) was based on a story by Yitzhak Ben-Ner, adapted to the screen by Dita Guery (together with Meir Doron, Gilad Evron, and Ram Loevy, who had earlier collaborated on Bread). Ostensibly the story of the Jewish underground movement fighting against the BritishBritish EmpireThe British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...
in Mandatory Palestine as seen from the perspective of a young boy, it is also a classic BildungsromanBildungsromanIn literary criticism, bildungsroman or coming-of-age story is a literary genre which focuses on the psychological and moral growth of the protagonist from youth to adulthood , and in which character change is thus extremely important...
about a boy transitioning into manhood with all the responsibilities that this entails. At the same time, however, it can also be seen as a metaphorMetaphorA metaphor is a literary figure of speech that uses an image, story or tangible thing to represent a less tangible thing or some intangible quality or idea; e.g., "Her eyes were glistening jewels." Metaphor may also be used for any rhetorical figures of speech that achieve their effects via...
for the State of Israel and its transition from youthful idealism of its founders' generation to the recognition of the stark realities facing a nation in its forties. - Crowned (19891989 in film-Events:* Batman is released on June 23, and goes on to gross over $410 million worldwide.* Actress Kim Basinger and her brother Mick purchase Braselton, Georgia, for $20 million...
) tackles a similar theme, but from the perspective of the founding fathers. The film, based on a play by author Yaakov ShabtaiYaakov ShabtaiYaakov Shabtai was an Israeli novelist, playwright, and translator.-Biography:Shabtai was born in 1934 in Tel Aviv, Mandate Palestine. In 1957, after completing military service, he joined Kibbutz Merhavia, but returned to Tel Aviv in 1967....
(adapted by Ephraim SidonEphraim SidonEphraim Sidon is a renowned Israeli author, playwright and satirist, cherished for both for his satirical work and his children's books.-Biography:...
and Ram Loevy), is an intense comedy based on the final days of the biblical King DavidDavidDavid was the second king of the united Kingdom of Israel according to the Hebrew Bible and, according to the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, an ancestor of Jesus Christ through both Saint Joseph and Mary...
. As his life approaches its end, he faces the most difficult task of his forty-year reign—giving up his crown to the next generation. Or perhaps he might even find a way to keep the crown for himself. The fact that this film was aired when Israel was itself forty years old was not lost on its audience. - Butsche (19921992 in filmThe year 1992 in film involved many significant films. -Top grossing films:-Awards:Academy AwardsGolden Globe AwardsNational Film Awards...
), based on a play by Yosef Bar-Yosef (script by Gilad Evron) tackles the religious divide within Israeli society in much the same way that Bread tackled the socio-economic divide. It is the story of an ultra-OrthodoxHaredi JudaismHaredi or Charedi/Chareidi Judaism is the most conservative form of Orthodox Judaism, often referred to as ultra-Orthodox. A follower of Haredi Judaism is called a Haredi ....
man who returns home to his family in the Mea ShearimMea ShearimMea Shearim is one of the oldest Jewish neighborhoods in Jerusalem, Israel. It is populated mainly by Haredi Jews and was built by the original settlers of the Yishuv haYashan.-Name:...
neighborhood of Jerusalem after being expelled by his father twelve years earlier for committing adulteryAdulteryAdultery is sexual infidelity to one's spouse, and is a form of extramarital sex. It originally referred only to sex between a woman who was married and a person other than her spouse. Even in cases of separation from one's spouse, an extramarital affair is still considered adultery.Adultery is...
. A reviewer wrote of the film that "Levy [sic] undermines what the secular think they know about the haredim, what haredim perhaps think they know about the secular …"
One final film in this period was an original work scripted by Daniella Carmi. The Woman Who Stopped Eating (1991
1991 in film
The year 1991 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*April 28 - Bonnie Raitt marries actor Michael O'Keefe in New York* Terminator 2: Judgment Day, became one of the landmarks for science fiction action films with its groundbreaking visual effects from Industrial Light & Magic.*November...
) is the story of a troubled scriptwriter who wants to write a feature film about a woman who stops eating. She turns to a film director who is also going through a crisis in his life, and together they begin to weave a story about this imaginary woman. The tension soon erupts, however, because the screenwriter wants to keep her story in the realm of the imaginary, while the director struggles to adopt a more realistic approach to the storyline. In some way, the story reflected the tensions marking Loevy's own career as both a documentarian and a dramatist.
The Israel Prize and The Film that Wasn't
It was now 1993, and Loevy was at work on his next film, a documentary, when he received the news that he had been awarded the Israel PrizeIsrael Prize
The Israel Prize is an award handed out by the State of Israel and is largely regarded as the state's highest honor. It is presented annually, on Israeli Independence Day, in a state ceremony in Jerusalem, in the presence of the President, the Prime Minister, the Knesset chairperson, and the...
for his lifework. It was the most prestigious honor that the Israeli government awards to its citizens, given annually to people from a wide range of fields who have made a significant contribution to Israeli culture
Culture of Israel
The culture of Israel developed long before the foundation of the State of Israel in 1948 and combines the heritage of secular and religious lives. Much of the diversity in Israel's culture comes from the diversity of its population...
, the sciences, or the country in general. It was only the second time that the prize was awarded to an individual for his contributions to television (the other was Moti Kirschenbaum
Moti Kirschenbaum
-Biography:Kirschenbaum was born in Kfar Saba in 1939. He studied in Pardes Hanna Agricultural High School. He served in the parachuted Nahal unit of the IDF. From 1962 to 1968 he studied film and television in UCLA....
), though in 1985, the country's Arabic-language
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
television broadcasts also received the award. According to the jury that awarded the prize,
"On the one hand, a prominent feature of his work in film is the desire to bring to a wider public of viewers an inner understanding and empathy for the way of life, the outlook on the world, and the motives that govern the actions of those known as "the fringe of society"—the homelessHomelessnessHomelessness describes the condition of people without a regular dwelling. People who are homeless are unable or unwilling to acquire and maintain regular, safe, and adequate housing, or lack "fixed, regular, and adequate night-time residence." The legal definition of "homeless" varies from country...
, the inhabitants of development towns, the Arabs, and the ultra-Orthodox.
Loevy's winning of the award made headlines the next day. The newspaper Yediot Ahronot reported that, "Israel Prize Winner Making Film about the Secret Service's 'Torture Chambers.'" It was not an accurate headline. Loevy's project, The Film that Wasn't
The Film that Wasn't
The Film that Wasn't is a two-part documentary series about interrogations in Israel and the Occupied Territories, including the use of torture in those interrogations. It aired on Israeli television in 1993 and 1994...
, was a two-part documentary on the way interrogation
Interrogation
Interrogation is interviewing as commonly employed by officers of the police, military, and Intelligence agencies with the goal of extracting a confession or obtaining information. Subjects of interrogation are often the suspects, victims, or witnesses of a crime...
was practiced by Israel, both within the Green Line
Green Line (Israel)
Green Line refers to the demarcation lines set out in the 1949 Armistice Agreements between Israel and its neighbours after the 1948 Arab-Israeli War...
(Episode 1) and in the Occupied Territories (Episode 2). Torture had long been a hot-button issue in Israel, and in 1987, an official commission headed by the former President of the Supreme Court
Supreme Court of Israel
The Supreme Court is at the head of the court system and highest judicial instance in Israel. The Supreme Court sits in Jerusalem.The area of its jurisdiction is all of Israel and the Israeli-occupied territories. A ruling of the Supreme Court is binding upon every court, other than the Supreme...
Moshe Landau
Moshe Landau
Moshe Landau was an Israeli jurist. He was the fifth President of the Supreme Court of Israel.-Biography:Landau was born in Danzig, Germany to Dr. Isaac Landau and Betty née Eisenstädt...
ruled that "moderate physical pressure" might sometimes be necessary as an interrogation tool. What the second episode really investigated was what was being defined as "moderate physical pressure." The two episodes were scheduled to be aired one week apart in October–November 1993.
While the first episode aired as planned, Kirschenbaum, who was then Director-General of the Israel Broadcasting Authority, was reluctant to screen the second episode until all three groups that interrogated prisoners—the police
Israel Police
The Israel Police is the civilian police force of Israel. As with most other police forces in the world, its duties include crime fighting, traffic control, maintaining public safety, and counter-terrorism...
, the Shin Bet, and the military
Israel Defense Forces
The Israel Defense Forces , commonly known in Israel by the Hebrew acronym Tzahal , are the military forces of the State of Israel. They consist of the ground forces, air force and navy. It is the sole military wing of the Israeli security forces, and has no civilian jurisdiction within Israel...
—responded to the allegations against them. Both the police and the Shin Bet did, but the IDF refused to respond to the charges of an anonymous young reservist, who claimed on camera to have been involved in the physical and mental abuse of prisoners. Even when it finally agreed to respond, it refused to ensure that the whistleblower
Whistleblower
A whistleblower is a person who tells the public or someone in authority about alleged dishonest or illegal activities occurring in a government department, a public or private organization, or a company...
's anonymity would be protected. It took eight months of intense negotiations between the IBA and the IDF before the IDF agreed to respond to the whistleblower's accusations. The second episode finally aired almost eight month after the first, on 14 June 2004.
Some people claimed that for tackling such an emotionally charged issue, Loevy should have been denied the Israel Prize. Others, however, came to his defense, with one critic writing: "The Israeli establishment had no choice but to embrace Loevy and grant him the Israel Prize in 1993, but even this did not succeed in silencing his penetrating voice and lightening his uncompromising perspective on Israeli society."
This view was also echoed in the citation of the jury explaining why it selected Loevy:
"Equally worthy of special mention is his persistent struggle to show themes regarded as 'unacceptable,' though they touch on fundamental truths about Israeli society. … Given this context, his work is marked by boldness and at the same time a great sense of responsibility. Two films that he made [Barricades and Khirbet Khize] had their first television screening delayed … In his struggle to bring these films before the viewer despite the fact that they treated controversial topics—a struggle which more than once led to the impugning of his personal and professional credibility—Loevy proved that he was not merely a maker of documentary films but first and foremost an artist with a point of view which he strives to bring before the viewer for him to grapple with."
The films that were
Over the next few years, Loevy was consumed by four major projects. The first of these was The Child Dreams (19941994 in television
The year 1994 in television involved some significant events.Below is a list of television-related events in 1994.For the American TV schedule, see: 1994-95 United States network television schedule.-Events:-Debuts:-Miniseries:...
), an adaptation of a new play (1993) by noted Israeli playwright Hanoch Levin
Hanoch Levin
Hanoch Levin , was a prominent Israeli dramatist. He was also a theater director, an author and a poet, but he is best known for his plays.- Early life :...
. The play itself was a remarkable achievement, inspired originally by the saga of the Saint Louis, but transformed over time into an "operatic" metaphor about death and the loss of faith in messianic
Messianism
Messianism is the belief in a messiah, a savior or redeemer. Many religions have a messiah concept, including the Jewish Messiah, the Christian Christ, the Muslim Mahdi and Isa , the Buddhist Maitreya, the Hindu Kalki and the Zoroastrian Saoshyant...
redemption
Redemption (theology)
Redemption is a concept common to several theologies. It is generally associated with the efforts of people within a faith to overcome their shortcomings and achieve the moral positions exemplified in their faith.- In Buddhism :...
that transcends any historical setting. In the words of theater critic Michael Handelzaltz, "It is a moving play, evoking compassion and identification. It is shocking, farcical, warped, grotesque, and amazing." Unlike much of modern theater, it was a play in verse—a tribute more to Brecht than to Ibsen
Henrik Ibsen
Henrik Ibsen was a major 19th-century Norwegian playwright, theatre director, and poet. He is often referred to as "the father of prose drama" and is one of the founders of Modernism in the theatre...
, though it was Ibsen who had traditionally set the style for modern television drama. At the same time, however, it was also a story about the futility of human cruelty, a theme that resonated throughout so much of Loevy's earlier work.
This was followed by Loevy's adaptation of Mr. Mani, a best-selling epic saga by Israeli author A.B. Yehoshua, with a script by longtime collaborator Gilad Evron. The novel is based on five conversations that tell the story of five generations of a Turkish
History of the Jews in Turkey
Turkish Jews The history of the Jews in the Ottoman Empire and Turkey covers the 2,400 years that Jews have lived in what is now Turkey. There have been Jewish communities in Asia Minor since at least the 5th century BCE and many Spanish and Portuguese Jews expelled from Spain were welcomed to the...
–Greek-Jewish
History of the Jews in Greece
There have been organized Jewish communities in Greece for more than two thousand years. The oldest and the most characteristic Jewish group that has inhabited Greece are the Romaniotes, also known as "Greek Jews"...
family, but in a larger sense, it is the story of Jewish and Israeli identity over the past two centuries. Originally, Loevy was hesitant about adapting the book for television, and asked the author: "You already have a book. Why do you need a movie?" In the end, Loevy decided that his film would break the conventions of traditional literary adaptations by capturing the essence of the book itself, not just in terms of content but of style as well.
In the book, five distinct "mono-dialogues" are used to tell the story of the family to an assumed listening partner, who is otherwise neither seen nor heard. Each of these mono-dialogues is different, and given by different people in different languages or period-appropriate forms of Hebrew. Loevy captured this in the film, creating along the way a new television vocabulary, far removed from the conventional forms of drama. The "mono-dialogue" technique consistently and intentionally eliminated the "fourth wall" taboo
Taboo
A taboo is a strong social prohibition relating to any area of human activity or social custom that is sacred and or forbidden based on moral judgment, religious beliefs and or scientific consensus. Breaking the taboo is usually considered objectionable or abhorrent by society...
of television and film, according to which, whatever appears on the screen remains oblivious of the fact that an audience is watching it. The intention is that the audience is expected to absolve itself of its traditional neutrality, and assume the role of a specific character in the story.In Loevy's own words, "Television demands text, but the television viewer is used to getting the complete text. Every question has an answer. …" In Mr. Mani, however, the role of respondent is filled by the camera and, by extension, the audience itself. "As soon as the speaker turns to the camera—in other words, to the audience, speaking directly to it in a way that demands an answer, it is as if the speaker stepped out of the screen, almost like in Woody Allen
Woody Allen
Woody Allen is an American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, jazz musician, author, and playwright. Allen's films draw heavily on literature, sexuality, philosophy, psychology, Jewish identity, and the history of cinema...
's The Purple Rose of Cairo
The Purple Rose of Cairo
The Purple Rose of Cairo is a 1985 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Woody Allen. Inspired by Sherlock, Jr., Hellzapoppin, and Pirandello's Six Characters in Search of an Author, it is the tale of a film character who leaves a fictional film of the same name and enters the real...
. The viewer is shaken up. The artificial nature of the situation itself in Mr. Mani screams its presence.". Like the characters in Luigi Pirandello
Luigi Pirandello
Luigi Pirandello was an Italian dramatist, novelist, and short story writer awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1934, for his "bold and brilliant renovation of the drama and the stage." Pirandello's works include novels, hundreds of short stories, and about 40 plays, some of which are written...
's Six Characters in Search of an Author
Six Characters in Search of an Author
Six Characters in Search of an Author is a play by the Italian writer Luigi Pirandello.The play is a satirical tragicomedy. It was first performed in 1921 at the Teatro Valle in Rome, to a very mixed reception, with shouts from the audience of "Manicomio!" .Subsequently the play enjoyed a much...
, the characters cease being the subjects of scrutiny by some external viewer. The external viewer, i.e., the audience, becomes a partner in dialogue with the actors and an active participant in the story.
This was a radical approach to television that was not immediately appreciated by the audience, including many who were familiar with the book. Loevy himself later said that, "As the person responsible for the artistic aspect of the production, I was eulogized on one hand and derided on the other. Since it was first screened in 1996
1996 in television
The year 1996 in television involved some significant events.Below is a list of television-related events in 1996.For the American TV schedule, see: 1996-97 United States network television schedule.-Events:-Debuts:-1950s:...
, however, the five-part miniseries Mr. Mani has won considerable acclaim for the way that it completely redefined the medium of television by transforming the viewer into an active participant. Mr. Mani was a critical success, and represented Israel at INPUT (the International Public Television Screening Conference) 1998.
1999 in television
The year 1999 in television involved some significant events.Below is a list of television-related events in 1999.For the American TV schedule, see: 1999-00 United States network television schedule.-Events:-Debuts:-Miniseries:...
Loevy expanded his scope to tackle a new issue that was rising to the forefront of Israeli consciousness: environmentalism
Environmentalism
Environmentalism is a broad philosophy, ideology and social movement regarding concerns for environmental conservation and improvement of the health of the environment, particularly as the measure for this health seeks to incorporate the concerns of non-human elements...
. Fourteen Footnotes to a Garbage Mountain was a documentary film about the Hiriya
Hiriya
Hiriya is a former waste dump located southeast of Tel Aviv, Israel.-History:Hiriya takes its name from the pre-1948 Arab village of al-Khayriyya, which was built on the site of the ancient biblical town of Beneberak....
, once Israel's national garbage dump, on the outskirts of Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv , officially Tel Aviv-Yafo , is the second most populous city in Israel, with a population of 404,400 on a land area of . The city is located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline in west-central Israel. It is the largest and most populous city in the metropolitan area of Gush Dan, with...
. To Israelis, however, the Hiriya is more than a dumpsite. It is a physical landmark—a flat-topped mountain (87 m)—towering over the heavily urbanized coastal plain
Coastal plain
A coastal plain is an area of flat, low-lying land adjacent to a seacoast and separated from the interior by other features. One of the world's longest coastal plains is located in eastern South America. The southwestern coastal plain of North America is notable for its species diversity...
and the Ayalon River
Ayalon River
The Ayalon River is a perennial stream in Israel, originating in the Judean Hills and mouthing into the Yarqon River in the Tel Aviv area.The total length of Ayalon River is about 50 kilometres and it drains an area of 815 square kilometres...
. Loevy succeeded in capturing the world of the Hiriya in its final days, as it was transformed from a dump to a recycling
Recycling
Recycling is processing used materials into new products to prevent waste of potentially useful materials, reduce the consumption of fresh raw materials, reduce energy usage, reduce air pollution and water pollution by reducing the need for "conventional" waste disposal, and lower greenhouse...
center and national park. He documented life around the site, and the art that sprouted up from its role—once mocked—as a national compost heap.
Loevy's next documentary film, Letters in the Wind (2001
2001 in television
The year 2001 in television involved some significant events.Below is a list of television-related events in 2001.-Events:-Debuts:-1940s:*Meet the Press .*Candid Camera .*CBS Evening News ....
), was a tribute to noted Israeli actor Yossi Banai
Yossi Banai
Yossi Banai was an Israeli performer, singer, actor, and dramatist.-Biography:Banai was born in Jerusalem, and grew up in the neighborhood of the Mahane Yehuda market...
, one of the country's most noted performers and scion of a well-established theatrical family. Banai was particularly close to Nisim Aloni, whose plays featured prominently in Loevy's early films, and he was also close friends with Yaakov Shabtai (Crowned) and Hanoch Levin (The Child Dreams), two artists whose work Loevy also adapted for the screen. By making this film about Banai, it was as if Loevy had captured the artistic pulse of an entire generation that had dominated Israeli theater.
Banai, however, was also known as a singer, and his interpretations of the chanson
Chanson
A chanson is in general any lyric-driven French song, usually polyphonic and secular. A singer specialising in chansons is known as a "chanteur" or "chanteuse" ; a collection of chansons, especially from the late Middle Ages and Renaissance, is also known as a chansonnier.-Chanson de geste:The...
s of Jacques Brel
Jacques Brel
Jacques Brel was a Belgian singer-songwriter who composed and performed literate, thoughtful, and theatrical songs that generated a large, devoted following in France initially, and later throughout the world. He was widely considered a master of the modern chanson...
and especially Georges Brassens
Georges Brassens
Georges Brassens , 22 October 1921 – 29 October 1981), was a French singer-songwriter and poet.Brassens was born in Sète, a town in southern France near Montpellier...
in Hebrew (translated by Naomi Shemer
Naomi Shemer
Naomi Shemer was a leading Israeli songwriter hailed as the "first lady of Israeli song and poetry."-Biography:Naomi Sapir was born on Kvutzat Kinneret, a kibbutz her parents had helped found, on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. In the 1950s she served in the Israeli Defense Force's Nahal...
) had endeared him to an even wider public. Banai's music featured prominently in the film, so that the pulse it captured turned into what one reviewer termed "a metronome of Yossi Banai's life."
Three television dramas
Shortly before Letters in the Wind, Loevy directed a popular miniseries, Policeman (20002000 in television
The year 2000 in television involved some significant events.Below is a list of television-related events in 2000.For the American TV schedule, see: 2000-01 United States network television schedule.-Event:-Debuts:-1940s:...
), based on a script by Galia Oz and Ofer Mashiach. Until now, Loevy's career paralleled the development of public television in Israel. He was intimately connected with Channel 1, which was, for years, Israel's only television network. In November 1993, however, the country launched Channel 2
Channel 2 (Israel)
Channel 2 is an Israeli commercial television channel.- History :In 1990, after 13 years of deliberations, the Knesset passed a law that paved the way for the establishment of commercial television in Israel. The goal was to enhance pluralism and create competition. Channel 2 began broadcasting on...
, its first commercial television station, and within just months of its first broadcast, it was offering a popular alternative to the public station.
In 1997, Loevy approached Moti Kirschenbaum with plans to direct a miniseries about a murder that took place in a fictional television station, Channel 66. Kirschenbaum approved of the project, but the following year Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
Benjamin Netanyahu
Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu is the current Prime Minister of Israel. He serves also as the Chairman of the Likud Party, as a Knesset member, as the Health Minister of Israel, as the Pensioner Affairs Minister of Israel and as the Economic Strategy Minister of Israel.Netanyahu is the first and, to...
decided to replace Kirschenbaum with Uri Porat. Porat had previously served as Director-General of the Israel Broadcasting Authority from 1984 to 1989, and was Director-General when Loevy produced Bread. Porat, however, was also closely aligned with the rightwing of the Israeli political spectrum, and had even referred to one of Hanoch Levin's anti-militaristic early plays as "theatrash". The problem with Loevy's project, he claimed, was the plot and budgetary constraints.
2001 in television
The year 2001 in television involved some significant events.Below is a list of television-related events in 2001.-Events:-Debuts:-1940s:*Meet the Press .*Candid Camera .*CBS Evening News ....
) was a critique of Israeli public television. He had enlisted Batya Gur
Batya Gur
Batya Gur was an Israeli writer. Her specialty was detective fiction.-Biography:Batya Gur was born in Tel Aviv in 1947 to parents who survived the Holocaust. She earned a master's degree in Hebrew literature from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Before writing her first detective novel at the...
, a popular writer of detective fiction
Detective fiction
Detective fiction is a sub-genre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an investigator , either professional or amateur, investigates a crime, often murder.-In ancient literature:...
, to tell the story of a murder that took place in Channel 66, a fictional commercial television station. Some critics, however, considered the story to be a settling of accounts with Channel 1. The film revolves around several plot axes, one of which is the story of a veteran director who wants to make a film about the story "Ido and Einam" by the Nobel laureate
Nobel Prize in Literature
Since 1901, the Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded annually to an author from any country who has, in the words from the will of Alfred Nobel, produced "in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction"...
Shmuel Yosef Agnon
Shmuel Yosef Agnon
Shmuel Yosef Agnon , was a Nobel Prize laureate writer and was one of the central figures of modern Hebrew fiction. In Hebrew, he is known by the acronym Shai Agnon . In English, his works are published under the name S. Y. Agnon.Agnon was born in Galicia, Austro-Hungarian Empire...
, but has the project rejected by the petty authorities who manage the station. The director decides to make the film anyways, but his girlfriend, the set designer is soon murdered, initiating a chain of murders at the station. Two factors adding to the complexity of the story is the fact that the murdered woman is also the ex-wife of the director's close friend, the station's senior programming manager, and the Agnon story that he is filming is also a story about a love triangle
Love triangle
A love triangle is usually a romantic relationship involving three people. While it can refer to two people independently romantically linked with a third, it usually implies that each of the three people has some kind of relationship to the other two...
.
KGB
The KGB was the commonly used acronym for the . It was the national security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 until 1991, and was the premier internal security, intelligence, and secret police organization during that time.The State Security Agency of the Republic of Belarus currently uses the...
and the FBI).
What makes the film most shocking, however, is the final discovery that the roots of the murder date back to an incident the Six Day War, when a group of Israeli soldiers massacred 52 Egyptian
Egyptians
Egyptians are nation an ethnic group made up of Mediterranean North Africans, the indigenous people of Egypt.Egyptian identity is closely tied to geography. The population of Egypt is concentrated in the lower Nile Valley, the small strip of cultivable land stretching from the First Cataract to...
prisoners at Ras Sudar
Ras Sudar
Ras Sidr is an Egyptian city located on the Gulf of Suez and the Red Sea coast. It is a part of the South Sinai Governorate, and consists of three areas: Wadi Sidr, Abu Sidr and Soerp. The region has been known since ancient biblical times....
in the Sinai
Sinai Peninsula
The Sinai Peninsula or Sinai is a triangular peninsula in Egypt about in area. It is situated between the Mediterranean Sea to the north, and the Red Sea to the south, and is the only part of Egyptian territory located in Asia as opposed to Africa, effectively serving as a land bridge between two...
. Loevy later admitted that this was the one incident in the plot that was not fictional. It was based on an account he had heard from a participant in 1970, while he was serving in the reserves. He went on to report the incident to the military authorities and, in consequence, was removed from his unit. He had long wanted to make a film about the incident, but lacked the evidence to prove conclusively what had happened. Loevy later said:
"When the Six Day War ended, everyone thought that the 'mother of all wars' was over and we won. I was terrified and thought to myself, 'What would happen to our prisoners there if this story gets out?' Nevertheless, I feel that we must not be silent. … People say that these things happen in wartime and that there is loyalty to the army and loyalty among the troops, which causes these things to disappear beneath the carpet. But I believe that we are betraying our real responsibility, which is to take these skeletons out of the closet, even if we think that the enemy has more skeletons than us. We must not be silent. We are all part of this terrible conspiracy of silence, and it is eating us up inside."
When Porat refused to produce the story, Loevy resigned from Channel 1. It was the end of a 31-year relationship. Channel 2 bought the rights to the series and Loevy directed it for them. Nevertheless, Loevy insists, "I had no intention of settling accounts with Channel 1. I love them like family." But the underlying story behind Murder in Television House had haunted him almost since he began working at Israeli television. It was a story that he needed to tell, and it made no difference where he told it.
Since then, Loevy made one more television drama, Skin (2005
2005 in television
The year 2005 in television involved some significant events.Below is a list of television-related events in 2005.For the American TV schedule, see: 2005–06 United States network television schedule.-Events:-Debuts:-Miniseries:...
), written by Shoham Smith, about a former stripper
Striptease
A striptease is an erotic or exotic dance in which the performer gradually undresses, either partly or completely, in a seductive and sexually suggestive manner...
who works in the Diamond Exchange District
Diamond Exchange District
The Diamond Exchange District is a district of the Israeli city of Ramat Gan. Bordering the Ayalon Highway, the road dividing Ramat Gan and Tel Aviv, the district is home to Israel's diamond industry as well as being a major commercial center....
in Ramat Gan, gets involved in a murder. Throughout most of the decade, however, his work focused on documentary films.
The 2000s
Over the remainder of the decade, Loevy directed seven documentary films:- Close, Closed, ClosureClose, Closed, ClosureClose, Closed, Closure is a documentary film by Ram Loevy that aired on Israel's Channel 8 on 5 August 2002. The film describes life in the occupied Gaza Strip, three years before Israel unilaterally disengaged from there in 2005...
(also known as Gaza, L'enfermement, 20022002 in televisionThe year 2002 in television involved some significant events.Below is a list of television-related events in 2002.For the American TV schedule, see: 2002–03 United States network television schedule.-Events:-Debuts:-1940s:...
) is a chilling account of life in the Gaza StripGaza Stripthumb|Gaza city skylineThe Gaza Strip lies on the Eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea. The Strip borders Egypt on the southwest and Israel on the south, east and north. It is about long, and between 6 and 12 kilometres wide, with a total area of...
, a place that Loevy describes as "a prison with one million inmates." An Israeli-French coproduction, it was one of very few Israeli films screened in the Arab world, airing on SOREAD in MoroccoMoroccoMorocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
and on three separate occasions on Al ArabiyaAl ArabiyaAl Arabiya is a Pan-Arabist Saudi-owned Arabic-language television news channel. Launched on March 3, 2003, the channel is based in Dubai Media City, United Arab Emirates, and is majority-owned by the Saudi broadcaster Middle East Broadcasting Center ....
television in the United Arab EmiratesUnited Arab EmiratesThe United Arab Emirates, abbreviated as the UAE, or shortened to "the Emirates", is a state situated in the southeast of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia on the Persian Gulf, bordering Oman, and Saudi Arabia, and sharing sea borders with Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, and Iran.The UAE is a...
. - Genifa, Genifa (20032003 in televisionThe year 2003 in television involved some significant events.Below is a list of television-related events in 2003.For the American TV schedule, see: 2003-04 United States network television schedule.-Events:-Debuts:-1940s:...
) is the story of an Israeli reserve unit that served during the Yom Kippur WarYom Kippur WarThe Yom Kippur War, Ramadan War or October War , also known as the 1973 Arab-Israeli War and the Fourth Arab-Israeli War, was fought from October 6 to 25, 1973, between Israel and a coalition of Arab states led by Egypt and Syria...
. - May I Hug You (20042004 in televisionThe year 2004 in television involved some significant events.Below is a list of television-related events in 2004.For the American TV schedule, see: 2004–05 United States network television schedule.-Events:-Debuts:-1940s:...
) addresses the issue of homelessnessHomelessnessHomelessness describes the condition of people without a regular dwelling. People who are homeless are unable or unwilling to acquire and maintain regular, safe, and adequate housing, or lack "fixed, regular, and adequate night-time residence." The legal definition of "homeless" varies from country...
through the story of a theater company that is producing a play about the phenomenon.
- Sakhnin, My Life (20062006 in television2006 in television may refer to:*2006 in American television*2006 in Australian television*2006 in British television*2006 in Canadian television*2006 in Japanese television...
), also an Israeli-French coproduction, is a sports story about the Bnei Sakhnin football club from the Arab town of SakhninSakhninSakhnin is a city in Israel's North District. It is located in the Lower Galilee, about east of Acre. Sakhnin was declared a city in 1995. Its population of 25,100 is Arab, mostly Muslim with a sizable Christian minority. It is located on the site of the ancient Jewish town Sikhnin, which...
, the first team from an Arab town to win the State CupIsrael State CupThe State Cup , is a knockout cup competition in Israeli football, run by the Israeli Football Association.The State Cup was first held in 1927–28 as the Palestine Cup...
in footballFootball in IsraelFootball is the most popular sport in Israel. Football as an organised sport first developed in the United Kingdom who controlled Israel during the days of the British Mandate. Israel will be hosting the UEFA U-21 Championship in 2013....
, Israel's most popular sport.
- Enter the Devil Drummer (20072007 in television2007 in television may refer to:*2007 in American television*2007 in Australian television*2007 in British television*2007 in Canadian television*2007 in Japanese television...
) is an account of a group of young Israelis that travels to a small village in MaliMaliMali , officially the Republic of Mali , is a landlocked country in Western Africa. Mali borders Algeria on the north, Niger on the east, Burkina Faso and the Côte d'Ivoire on the south, Guinea on the south-west, and Senegal and Mauritania on the west. Its size is just over 1,240,000 km² with...
to learn to play the djembeDjembeA djembe also known as jembe, jenbe, djbobimbe, jymbe, yembe, or jimbay, or sanbanyi in Susu; is a skin-covered drum meant played with bare hands....
, and ends up learning more about themselves. - Barks (20072007 in television2007 in television may refer to:*2007 in American television*2007 in Australian television*2007 in British television*2007 in Canadian television*2007 in Japanese television...
) is, ostensibly, the story of Israel as seen through the eyes of its dogs, though it is more about its owners than the pets themselves. Loevy explained that the inspiration for the film was the dog Dooby that he grew up with as a child, and a scene he once witnessed in an affluent neighborhood in Tel Aviv. It was there that he first encountered a dog with an electric collar, which would deliver a shock every time the animal barked. Though this never appears in the film, the incident eventually made him think about how Israelis are usually so kind to their dogs, even though they can act so cruelly to others. "The film is about Israeli society", he said, "about our racism." - In The Games They Play (20092009 in televisionThe following is a list of events affecting American television in 2009. Events listed include television show debuts, finales, cancellations, and new channel launches.-January:-February:-March:-April:-May:-June:-July:-August:...
) Loevy returns to the world of sport to document an international student basketballBasketballBasketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
tournament that endeavors to promote peace between nations.
In 2007, Loevy also served as producer for the film The Woman From The Bubble about a young woman who translates sign language
Sign language
A sign language is a language which, instead of acoustically conveyed sound patterns, uses visually transmitted sign patterns to convey meaning—simultaneously combining hand shapes, orientation and movement of the hands, arms or body, and facial expressions to fluidly express a speaker's...
. It was an emotional project for Ram Loevy, not least because the film's director, Netta Loevy, was his daughter.
The future
After four decades of creating a wide range of dramas and documentaries for Israeli television, Loevy is in the process of embarking on a new career—directing his first full length feature film for the cinema. The film, entitled The Dead of Jaffa, is being written by his longtime collaborator Gilad Evron and produced by award-winning director-producer Eran RiklisEran Riklis
Eran Riklis is an Israeli filmmaker. His films include Cup Final , The Syrian Bride , and Lemon Tree . He was born in 1954 and he studied at the National Film and Television School in England. He is married to Dina Riklis and they have two children, a daughter, Tammy, and a son, Jonathan...
. It is an intimate look at Arab life in the city of Jaffa both in 1947 and today.
Place in film
Ram Loevy's career parallels the development of Israeli television from its founding in the late 1960s until today. Like only a handful of directors in film and television, his work not only echoes the public discourse of the day, but has in many instances, set the agenda of that discourse. In that sense, he is best seen as a local representative of the Latin American Tercer CineThird Cinema
Third Cinema is a Latin American film movement that started in the 1960s-70s which decries neocolonialism, the capitalist system, and the Hollywood model of cinema as mere entertainment to make money...
, a school of filmmaking developed by Argentine
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
filmmakers Fernando Solanas
Fernando Solanas
Fernando Ezequiel 'Pino' Solanas is an Argentine film director, screenwriter and politician....
and Octavio Getino
Octavio Getino
Octavio Getino is an Argentine film director who is best known for co-founding, along with Fernando Solanas, the Grupo Cine Liberación and the school of Third Cinema....
, which rejects film as a means of propagating bourgeoisie, capitalist values and neocolonialism
Neocolonialism
Neocolonialism is the practice of using capitalism, globalization, and cultural forces to control a country in lieu of direct military or political control...
, especially as exemplified by Hollywood.
Works like Bread had the same impact on his audience as Vittorio de Sica
Vittorio de Sica
Vittorio De Sica was an Italian director and actor, a leading figure in the neorealist movement....
's Sciuscià raising awareness of the social conditions facing the underclass, and the steps—often radical and always original—they take to survive. At the same time, however, many of Loevy's films, both dramas and documentaries—are intense political stories in the mold of Costa Gavras's Z
Z (film)
Z is a 1969 French language political thriller directed by Costa Gavras, with a screenplay by Gavras and Jorge Semprún, based on the 1966 novel of the same name by Vassilis Vassilikos. The film presents a thinly fictionalized account of the events surrounding the assassination of democratic Greek...
or Godard
Jean-Luc Godard
Jean-Luc Godard is a French-Swiss film director, screenwriter and film critic. He is often identified with the 1960s French film movement, French Nouvelle Vague, or "New Wave"....
's Le Petit Soldat (banned in France until 1963 for its depiction of torture).
Yet Loevy is also a literary classicist, who turns to the theater for some of his finest works. This is reflected in his collaboration with leading Israeli playwrights such as Nisim Aloni and Hanoch Levin, and his adaptation of the works of such authors as S. Yizhar, Yaakov Shabtai, and even, in Murder at Television House, Shmuel Yosef Agnon. In this sense Loevy's work echoes Olivier
Laurence Olivier
Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier, OM was an English actor, director, and producer. He was one of the most famous and revered actors of the 20th century. He married three times, to fellow actors Jill Esmond, Vivien Leigh, and Joan Plowright...
's Henry V
Henry V (1944 film)
Henry V is a 1944 film adaptation of William Shakespeare's play of the same name. The on-screen title is The Cronicle History of King Henry the Fift with His Battell Fought at Agincourt in France . It stars Laurence Olivier, who also directed. The play was adapted for the screen by Olivier, Dallas...
, Derek Jarman
Derek Jarman
Michael Derek Elworthy Jarman was an English film director, stage designer, diarist, artist, gardener and author.-Life:...
's The Tempest, or Gus Van Sant
Gus Van Sant
Gus Green Van Sant, Jr. is an American director, screenwriter, painter, photographer, musician, and author. He is a two time nominee of the Academy Award for Best Director for his 1997 film Good Will Hunting and his 2008 film Milk, both of which were also nominated for Best Picture, and won the...
's My Own Private Idaho
My Own Private Idaho
My Own Private Idaho is a 1991 independent drama film written and directed by Gus Van Sant, loosely based on Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 1, Henry IV, Part 2, and Henry V, and starring River Phoenix and Keanu Reeves...
, which was based on William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
's Henry IV, Part I, or even Erich von Stroheim
Erich von Stroheim
Erich von Stroheim was an Austrian-born film star of the silent era, subsequently noted as an auteur for his directorial work.-Background:...
's Greed
Greed (film)
Greed is a 1924 American dramatic silent film. It was directed by Erich von Stroheim and starring Gibson Gowland, Zasu Pitts, Jean Hersholt, Dale Fuller, Tempe Pigott, Sylvia Ashton, Chester Conklin, Joan Standing and Jack Curtis....
, an adaptation of Frank Norris
Frank Norris
Benjamin Franklin Norris, Jr. was an American novelist, during the Progressive Era, writing predominantly in the naturalist genre. His notable works include McTeague , The Octopus: A Story of California , and The Pit .-Life:Frank Norris was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1870...
's McTeague
McTeague
McTeague is a novel by Frank Norris, first published in 1899. It tells the story of a couple's courtship and marriage, and their subsequent descent into poverty, violence and finally murder as the result of jealousy and avarice...
in its efforts to relay contemporary messages through classic literature. And yet, he is not afraid to tackle popular culture as well, as seen in his collaboration with detective novelist Batya Gur and his documentary about Yossi Banai. In that sense, his work is highly reminiscent of that of Dennis Potter
Dennis Potter
Dennis Christopher George Potter was an English dramatist, best known for The Singing Detective. His widely acclaimed television dramas mixed fantasy and reality, the personal and the social. He was particularly fond of using themes and images from popular culture.-Biography:Dennis Potter was born...
, who also chose television as his preferred medium.
In an interview, Loevy said:
'I want to make a film for the big screen, but I am also afraid, because television is so human. It has human dimensions. It's there in the living room. Film has a mythical dimension to it. Its characters are distant gods, larger than life."