by Jamie Stuart
Tchelet Semel is a young Israeli actress with long, curly, red-orange hair. She
tells me, “Most of the people you see going into whore houses are either, not
to sound racist, foreign workers from like Rumania, a lot of Arab people and
religious Jews.”
I sat down recently with The Holy Land’s director, Eitan Gorlin, as
well as three of its stars, Oren Rehany, Tchelet, and indie veteran Saul Stein.
The tagline reads: “A yeshiva student. A Russian prostitute. A love story.”
Rock on.
The Holy Land was shot in 1999 during the Israeli-Palestinian peace
process. It’s taken four years for the film, shot entirely on location in
Israel, to be released. In that time the country portrayed has ceased existing.
“Now we couldn’t shoot there,” explains Saul, with dark hair and darker
eyes. “But then the peace process with Barak was going on. Cause I had been to
Israel years before and there were roadblocks everywhere. Soldiers everywhere
with guns. I was amazed. This time it wasn’t like that. Like Eitan was saying
– you could hardly find a roadblock. We needed them to shoot! Suddenly, it was
like a different place. Now it’s gone back to the way it was. It’s shocking
that it could switch so quick. It’s such a freaky, volatile region.”
Tchelet elaborates, “We shot in areas in East Jerusalem. The Arab village.
That’s an area where nobody goes anymore. You can’t.” Reminiscing, she
continues, “Those were good days. Good days in Israel. Lots of night life and
it was just before the millennium. Lots of freaks coming to Jerusalem. Fun
times.”
Oren, who recently moved to New York, is candid. He offers, “It sounds a
little cynical, but what’s happening in the Middle East, I think, does well
for the film. I’m not sure if there were comprehensive peace in the Middle
East it would be as interesting. This film is about conflict. This film is about
the inner fights you have with yourself – presenting the conflict between
cultures, as well. So, with the conflict actually getting worse, sadly, this
film is more up to date than ever.”
He clarifies his position, however, by asserting, “It’s not trying to be
controversial – it’s just telling a story. It’s controversial because it
deals with issues. I think the message that comes across is a peaceful message.
It’s about accepting everybody the way they are. Never judge anybody.”
The film is Eitan Gorland’s first feature, and it came about through a mixture
of working in New York on small movie productions and also working at a bar in
Jerusalem during the mid-‘90s.
“I was a bartender at a bar called Mike’s Place, which is the inspiration
for where a lot of the characters and situations came from,” he begins. (Mike
has since sold his bar, which maintains the same name. Eitan informs me that it
was actually bombed a few months ago.)
“Since’95 I’ve pretty much been living a low-budget New York life. I
started as a PA, did electric grip work. During that time I wrote 3 scripts. And
a novella, which this script was based on.”
Opening up, he says, “I made this film in’99. It’s not like today where it
seems like all you see on TV is propaganda. I think we live in a real propaganda
age right now, where it’s all about convincing people to choose one side over
the other. Convincing people that side A is good and side B is evil. So, maybe
if I were to make the film today…what’s happening in our country could’ve
been something that would’ve affected me. That’s just the way I’ve always
viewed stories. There’s always a certain ambiguity, a certain complexity.
These characters are based on people I’ve either met or composites of people.
People seem to have an agenda. It’s very important to them that one side be
right and one side be wrong. It’s about controlling the story. We just tried
to get as close to this story and tell it as honestly as possible.”
The Holy Land seems to be doing all right. It’s done solid business at
The Angelika in New York for the past two weekends, and it will ultimately reach
22 cities around the country. With awards from both the 2002 Slamdance Festival
and Avignon/New York, it’s a little indie that’s made it.
This is all a great relief to Saul, who was part of the last indie boom. In
closing, he laments, “It was a prolific time. The indie movement has changed
so much. But I said when it started, it’s gonna be going like this for about 5
years before it gets taken over by whatever. That’s what happened. Now stars
are doing it. No room anymore. And the films are like $10-15 million.”
-Copyright
2003 by Jamie
Stuart