Film Projects in process
I am currently working on several documentary projects. I think that lately the subject most close to my heart is connected with "home" be it my own private home or the national home – Israel. Most probably this subject, which has been my preoccupation for many years, relates to the fact that I had to leave my own home when I was five years old. Ever since then I have been a kind of a nomad, perhaps in search of the “right place”.
Harry
Harry Finkbeiner, a Christian German, came to Israel over thirty years ago and decided to bind his fate to the Jewish people in Israel. He is one of some young Germans who came during the decades to Israel in order to atone for the sins of their parents’ generation during WW2. Harry is a holistic naturopath mainly works with gentle chiropractic and lives in Kibbutz Harduf in the lower Galilee.
Here he met a beautiful Jewish woman named Hannah and married her.
Harry and I met for the first time in the middle of the second Intifada. At the time Harry asked me to join and film “quiet peace walks”, a group of men and women who are following the method of the spiritual Buddhist and peace activist "Thich Nhat Hanh". The group of Arabs and Jews attempted to bring more understanding and tolerance between Israelis and Palestinians in the thorn field of the conflict. I filmed the group’s activities. Later on Harry and I started our own visits to the combat zones in the West Bank and Gaza. He would take me to Palestinian families that he is in contact with and I would film and interview them about their lives under the occupation. Even today, despite the prohibition of the Israeli crossing the lines, Harry goes out weekly, usually alone, to visit his Palestinians friends and patients in the territories. They receive him with love mixed with admiration and even consider him a holy man. In these trips across the borders he brings food and gifts for adults and children. Continuously he’d say: "All that I do I do for you, Israeli Jews".
In the coming year I plan to travel with Harry in Germany. My intention is to try to find out more about the foundation of both our families and the thin line that distinguishes between being here, in Israel and there, Germany.
Whomever wishes to see the whole synopsis, please contact me at:
yardenalef@gmail.com
or you can call 972 | 73 | 7367447
"Diaspora"
Where is my home? Why have I never had a permanent home? Since childhood I’ve always found myself on the move, never in one home for more than a few years. Is it in my genes to be the Wandering Jew? With a German passport in my pocket I return to Germany. I’m traveling by train that goes between German landscapes and cities. Throughout my trip I carry the old brown suitcase that my father brought from Germany in 1934 when he left his homeland to come to Palestine. From this suitcase I pull out memories from the past, pictures, written excerpts from my diary and film interviews that I made over the past 10 years, they are all connected to the notion of “home” and its context to "Homeland".
During my journey through Germany I meet and film old friends: Israelis, Palestinians and Germans. They will join me on this trip through a picture, a book they have written or a film I have made that I pull out from my suitcase. All along my journey I ask myself this question: Is Israel, too, another place of refuge for me as Germany was for my forefathers?
