The Israeli film maker Shmuel Maoz won last night the top prize: The award of the coveted Golden Lion to 'Lebanon' , at the Venice film festival
After he was declared winner, he was interviewed by Israeli news channels. Maoz sounded very excited by the winning itself, and more than that, by the responds he got few minutes after the announcement .
It was very important for him, so he said, to hear that people, from many countries, who presented their work at the film festival, assured him that from now on, they're going to look at Israelis in a different manner: that his film made a difference for them, made a change in the way they used to relate to Israelis. That looking at a war from the womb of a tank looks utterly different.
Maoz told in interviews that it took him over 23 years to start making this movie, describing his personal experience as a young soldier at the Lebanon war (1982) ." It's not a political movie", he announced , and indeed, the spectators were impressed especially by the horror of battle which could be in any war around the world- as one of the critics said.
The New York Times called it "an astonishing piece of cinema."
And that's a good opportunity to wish for a better new year:
Shana Tova
