Israeli award-winning director, Dan Wolman, introduced An Israeli Love Story and five other movies to Chinese audience in Beijing to show local customs of this West Asian land.
The event kicked-off with An Israeli Love Story, staring Adi Bielski and Aviv Alush, on Monday. The film is based on Israeli theatre and movie actress Pnina Gary’s true life story during the period between 1942 through 1948.
“It is a very simple but delicate love story of a woman,” said Wolman. “There’s something I really want to capture – the innocence of that period of time, that people were idealistic and willing to sacrifice themselves for their ideal.”
The story takes place in 1942 when young Margalit first met her love, Ami. Under the turbulent situation, these two kept missing each other until they met again in a Kibbutz, a type of farm in Israel where many people live and work together. They fell in love and decided to marry on Purim, a Jewish holiday. As they were preparing the wedding, Ami and six others were trapped and killed.
Born in 1941, Wolman was familiar with the songs and dresses in the story. “She told me her story which was one-sided, and I had to make it more complex so that it can touch you to feel the tragedy. So I added some little things that made the story believable.”
“I hope to touch people and to make them feel something,” said Wolman. “I just try to do what I can do.”
This is not Wolman’s first time in Beijing. In 2011, he took home the trophy of "Best Foreign Film" chosen by the audience at Golden Rooster - One Hundred flower Film Festival" in China. It was also then that Wolman began to get involved in Chinese film industry.
Wolman also volunteers to increase collaboration between the two countries’ film industries. For example, he has worked with students from National Academy of Chinese Theatre Arts on a film about Chinese opera.
Five more Wolman’s films are on display: My Michael, Foreign Sister, Ben's Biography, Tied Hands and Valley of Strength. The panorama will run for two months in different cinemas in Beijing.
