MEHAL HAGIVA
Israel, France
Synopsis
Forty-something Saul is a melancholic dreamer, with a tendency to run whenever things go wrong. He returns to Haifa one day for a reckoning with the father he has not seen in five years. But getting along with an airy-fairy mother-in-law with a penchant for new age, a daughter on the verge of adolescence and a father who's been converted to yoga is not easy. After a fateful slip, Saul will find his place as a son, a father and more.
Director's Statement
A STRANGE COURSE OF EVENTS is the story of a man who returns to his father to seek answers to his existence, to seek meaning, despite his loneliness, his subjectivity, his loss of sanctuary and his intense sense of illusion.
A STRANGE COURSE OF EVENTS was developed at length with Geoffrey Grison, my writing partner. We attempted to expose the course of a life of an individual, the perspective of a man as to his existence, a sense of emotion and thought in the making.
The project is a personal epiphany that I wanted the viewer to undergo and experience, without judging the protagonist, through mental images that lead to disillusionment.
Though the theme lends itself from mythology, the film is light-hearted, burlesque, satirical. The burlesque of "A Strange Course Of Events" is a tribute to childish innocence, to the absurd surprise that calls for internal and external questions and leads to the protagonists" inevitable healing.
There is something sad and melancholy in this protagonist seeking answers. Were we to find the answers, would we accept them? Those eternal questions: Can we free ourselves of fate? What can we hope for?
Cast & Crew
Directed by: Raphael Nadjari
Written by: Raphael Nadjari & Geoffrey Grison
Produced by: Caroline Bonmarchand, Marek Rozenbaum, Itai Tamir
Cinematography: Laurent Brunet
Editing: Simon Birman
Production Design: Maha Assal
Costume Design: Yam Bruzilovsky
Original Score: Jocelyn Soubiran, Jean-Pierre Sleuys
Sound: Chen Harpaz
Actor: Ori Pfeffer, Michaela Eshet, Moni Moshonov
Nominations and Awards
- Feature Film Selection 2013