Amos Gitai
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Amos Gitai ( he, עמוס גיתאי; born 11 October 1950) is an
Israeli Israeli may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the State of Israel * Israelis, citizens or permanent residents of the State of Israel * Modern Hebrew, a language * ''Israeli'' (newspaper), published from 2006 to 2008 * Guni Israeli (b ...
filmmaker, who was trained as an architect. Gitai's work was presented in several major retrospectives in Pompidou Center in Paris, the
Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of t ...
(MoMA) and
Lincoln Center Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (also simply known as Lincoln Center) is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It has thirty indoor and outdoor facilities and is host to 5 milli ...
in New York, and the
British Film Institute The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves film-making and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery to encourage film production, ...
in London. To date, Amos Gitai has created over 90 works of art, including a wide variety of formats such as feature and short films, fiction and documentaries, experimental work, television productions, installations and theater works. Between 1999 and 2017 ten of his films participated in the
Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Festival (; french: link=no, Festival de Cannes), until 2003 called the International Film Festival (') and known in English as the Cannes Film Festival, is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films ...
for the
Palme d'Or The Palme d'Or (; en, Golden Palm) is the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival. It was introduced in 1955 by the festival's organizing committee. Previously, from 1939 to 1954, the festival's highest prize was the Grand Prix du Fe ...
as well as The
Venice International Film Festival The Venice Film Festival or Venice International Film Festival ( it, Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica della Biennale di Venezia, "International Exhibition of Cinematographic Art of the Venice Biennale") is an annual film festival h ...
for the
Golden Lion The Golden Lion ( it, Leone d'oro) is the highest prize given to a film at the Venice Film Festival. The prize was introduced in 1949 by the organizing committee and is now regarded as one of the film industry's most prestigious and distinguis ...
award. He has worked with
Juliette Binoche Juliette Binoche (; born 9 March 1964) is a French actress and dancer. She has appeared in more than sixty feature films and has been the recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, a Silver Bear, ...
,
Jeanne Moreau Jeanne Moreau (; 23 January 1928 – 31 July 2017) was a French actress, singer, screenwriter, director, and socialite. She made her theatrical debut in 1947, and established herself as one of the leading actresses of the Comédie-Française. M ...
,
Natalie Portman Natalie Portman (born Natalie Hershlag, he, נטע-לי הרשלג, ) is an Israeli-born American actress. She has had a prolific film career since her teenage years and has starred in various blockbusters and independent films, receiving mu ...
,
Yael Abecassis Yael Abecassis ( he, יעל אבקסיס; born 19 July 1967) is an Israeli actress and model. Biography Yael Abecassis was born in Ashkelon, Israel, to parents of Moroccan Jewish descent. Abecassis married Israeli actor Lior Miller in 1996 an ...
,
Samuel Fuller Samuel Michael Fuller (August 12, 1912 – October 30, 1997) was an American film director, screenwriter, novelist, journalist, and World War II veteran known for directing low-budget genre movies with controversial themes, often made ou ...
,
Hanna Schygulla Hanna Schygulla (; born 25 December 1943) is a German actress and chanson singer associated with the theater and film director Rainer Werner Fassbinder. She first worked for Fassbinder in 1965 and became an active participant in the New German ...
,
Annie Lennox Ann Lennox (born 25 December 1954) is a Scottish singer-songwriter, political activist and philanthropist. After achieving moderate success in the late 1970s as part of the new wave band the Tourists, she and fellow musician Dave Stewart w ...
, Barbara Hendricks, Léa Seydoux,
Valeria Bruni Tedeschi Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, also written Bruni-Tedeschi (; born 16 November 1964), is an Italian-French actress, screenwriter and film director. Her 2013 film, ''A Castle in Italy,'' was nominated for the Palme d'Or at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival. ...
, Henri Alekan, Renato Berta, Nurith Aviv, Éric Gautier and more. Since 2000 he has been collaborating with the French screenwriter Marie-José Sanselme. He received several prestigious prizes, in particular the Leopard of Honor at the Locarno International Film Festival (2008), the Roberto Rossellini prize (2005), the Robert Bresson prize (2013), the Paradjanov prize (2014) and
Légion d'Honneur The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon ...
(2017). In 2018, Amos Gitai has been elected professor at the chair of artistic creation at the
Collège de France The Collège de France (), formerly known as the ''Collège Royal'' or as the ''Collège impérial'' founded in 1530 by François I, is a higher education and research establishment ('' grand établissement'') in France. It is located in Paris n ...
, with a series of 12 lessons on cinema. In 2019 he received the Grande Ufficiale dell'Ordine della Stella Italia.


Early life

Gitai was born to
Munio Weinraub Munio Gitai Weinraub (March 6, 1909 - September 24, 1970) was an Israeli architect, a pioneer of modern architecture and urban and environmental planning in Israel, and one of the most prominent representatives of the Bauhaus heritage in the count ...
, an architect formed at the pre-war German
Bauhaus The Staatliches Bauhaus (), commonly known as the Bauhaus (), was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., 20 ...
art school, and to Efratia Margalit, an intellectual, a storyteller and a teacher. He graduated from the Hebrew Reali School in
Haifa Haifa ( he, חֵיפָה ' ; ar, حَيْفَا ') is the third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropol ...
in
1968 The year was highlighted by protests and other unrests that occurred worldwide. Events January–February * January 5 – " Prague Spring": Alexander Dubček is chosen as leader of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. * J ...
. He holds a degree in architecture from the Technion in Haifa and a PhD in architecture from the
University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant un ...
. In 1973, during the
Yom Kippur War The Yom Kippur War, also known as the Ramadan War, the October War, the 1973 Arab–Israeli War, or the Fourth Arab–Israeli War, was an armed conflict fought from October 6 to 25, 1973 between Israel and a coalition of Arab states led by E ...
, Gitai had to interrupt his architecture studies as he was called up to the reserve service as part of a helicopter rescue crew. Gitai was wounded when the helicopter he was in was hit by a Syrian missile. During his missions, he used a Super 8 camera to document the war. After the war, he embarked on a career as a filmmaker and made his first documentary in 1980, House.


Film career

Gitai began his career directing mostly documentaries. In 1980 he directed his first full-length film ''House'', that follows a house in West Jerusalem, abandoned during the 1948 war by its Palestinian owner. In the film, Gitai follows the different house tenants over the years, making the house the focus of the Israeli socio-political conflict. It opens a democratic cinematic space around the same house where a split of perspectives on the situation and its history takes place. The film was rejected and censored by the Israeli television, an event which marks the filmmaker's conflictual relationship with the authorities of his country. It is to make this film exist in spite of the censorship and to continue along the path he had just begun, that he says at that time: "I decided to become a filmmaker". This relationship was soon to be fueled by the controversy surrounding of his film ''Field Diary'', made before and during the invasion of Lebanon in 1982, and resulting in a long exile in France (1983-1993). ''House'' was the first part of a trilogy including the films ''A House in Jerusalem'' (1998), ''News from Home / News from House'' (2005). It was a first trilogy of many others; a concept Gitai consistently worked with during his career, offering a complex and layered view on the geopolitical Israeli reality. To his biographical elements (his family origins, the generation to which he belongs, his architectural studies, the making of House and its effects) must be added the experience of the Yom Kippur War, in which he almost died at the age of 23, an experience that would influence all his future work. The traumatic event itself is the focus of a series of experimental short films and documentaries, before directing the film Yom Kippur in 2000, which definitively consecrated its stature after its positive reception at the Cannes Film Festival. The evocation of this intimate and common experience served by an impressive plastic sense is exemplary of Amos Gitai's art. The film also marks the beginning of the director's collaboration with screenwriter Marie-José Sanselme that dates until today. He continues with the making of the three Wadi (''Wadi'' 1981, ''Wadi Ten Years After'' 1991, ''Wadi Grand Canyon'' 2001) which similar to House is dealing with a specific location and examines the complex relationships between the residents of the former stone quarry - Eastern European immigrants, survivors of the camps and Arabs who have also been expelled from their homes due to the wars in Israel. Gitai turns the valley into a symbol of a possible coexistence. HIs third trilogy deals with the Israeli political-military practices (Field Diary, 1982; Giving Peace a Chance, 1994; The Arena of Murder, 1996). Yann Lardeau wrote about ''Field Diary:'' He continues with the making of the trilogy on the procedures of world capitalism (Pineapple, 1984; Bangkok-Bahrain/Labour for Sale, 1984; Orange, 1998) and the trilogy on the resurgence of the European extreme right (In the Wupper Valley, 1993; In the Name of the Duce/Naples-Rome, 1994; Queen Mary '87, 1995). But also trilogies of fiction, trilogies of exile (Esther, 1985; Berlin-Jerusalem, 1989; Golem, the spirit of exile, 1991), trilogies of cities (Devarim, 1995; Yom Yom, 1998 ; Kadosh, 1999), trilogy of historical events decisive for Israel (Yom Kippur, 2000; Eden, 2001; Kedma, 2002 and trilogy of borders (Promised Land, 2004; Free Zone, 2005; Disengagement, 2007). He then devotes a diptych to his parents, with the first film ''Carmel'' (2009), which is an intimate reflection on the correspondence of his mother Efratia (Gallimard, 2010). The second film ''Lullaby to my Father'' (2012) traces the journey of his father Munio Gitai Weinraub from his childhood in Silesia, his Bauhaus studies with Mies van der Rohe and Hannes Meyer at the time of the rise to power and the conquest of power by the Nazis. Gitai conducts a tireless research on aesthetic means, which is anchored in the experimental uses of the camera from adolescence, and goes through the assertive stylisation of early fiction under the claimed influence of Bertolt Brecht and expressionism, as well as through the search for filming devices adapted to particular projects. One of the stylistic figures most willingly employed by Amos Gitai is the sequence shot, the long duration of the recording being used for multiple purposes never limited to visual seduction, but always in search of meaningful effects. A committed artist, Gitai is also the inventor of unexpected dramatic structures, such as the asymmetrical doubling of ''Berlin-Jerusalem'', the spatial blocks of ''Alila'' or the temporal blocks of ''One day you'll understand'' (2008), the destabilizing fluidity of the ''Promised Land'', the critical superimpositions of ''The Arena of Murder'' and ''Free Zone'', to the abruptly broken-in-two narrative of ''Disengagement'' (2007) or the single 81-minute sequence shot of ''Ana Arabia'' (2013), which depicts a moment in the life of a small community of Jewish and Arab outsiders on the outskirts of Jaffa. In 2015, his film ''The Last Day of Yitzhak Rabin'' was presented in competition at the Venice Mostra and then at the
Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has grown to become a perman ...
. Twenty years after the assassination of the Israeli Prime Minister by a religious right-wing student on November 4, 1995, in Tel Aviv, Gitai looks back on this traumatic event. Placing the assassination in its political and social context, Yitzhak Rabin's Last Day mixes fictional reconstructions and archival footage in this political thriller that is also about the growing crisis in contemporary Israeli society. In 2016, Gitai continues the work he began with his film ''The Last Day of Yitzhak Rabin'' in an installation presented first at the Maxxi Museum, Rome, under the title 'Chronicle of an Assassination Foretold', then at the BOZAR Museum in Brussels and at the Fondation Lambert in Avignon (spring/summer 2016). Ceramics, photographs, video installations and archival documents take up space to offer a new reading of the events leading up to Yitzhak Rabin's assassination. This latest exhibition echoes a theatrical performance given in the Cour d'Honneur of the Palais des Papes on 10 July 2016 for the
Avignon Festival The ''Festival d'Avignon'', or Avignon Festival, is an annual arts festival held in the French city of Avignon every summer in July in the courtyard of the Palais des Papes as well as in other locations of the city. Founded in 1947 by Jean Vila ...
. Based on the memories of Leah Rabin, Yitzhak Rabin's wife, Amos Gitai imagines an "able with four female protagonists, two actresses, Hiam Abbass and
Sarah Adler Sarah Adler ( he, שרה אדלר; born 1978) is a French and Israeli actress with dual citizenship. Career Adler is now best known for her performances in the 2017 Israeli films ''Foxtrot'' and '' The Cakemaker''; earlier in her career her nota ...
, and two musicians, Edna Stern (piano) and Sonia Wieder-Atherton (cello), four voices associated in a recitative mode, between lament and lullaby, which go back in time. Also in 2016, a 540-page book dedicated to Amos Gitai is published by the Enrico Navarra Gallery and the Sébastien Moreu publishing house. The book includes more than 250 reproductions from films, location scouting and filming, as well as family archives, Amos Gitai's creations and interviews with Hans-Ulrich Obrist, Arthur Miller, Hou Hanru, Guy Amsellem, Annette Michelson, Richard Ingersoll, Élisabeth Lebovici and Stephan Levine. 35 years after ''Field Diary'' (1982), Gitai returns to the West Bank with ''West of the Jordan River'' (2017), which describes the relationship between Israelis and Palestinians today. A tribute to those, "civilian or military, known or anonymous, who, in Israel, have not renounced reconciliation with the Palestinians", the film is presented in the Directors' Fortnight13 at the Cannes Film Festival. 2018 is a year of intense activity for the director, invited by the Venice Mostra to present two films in the competition of the Venice Film Festival. ''A Tramway in Jerusalem'' (2019) is a themed comedy that humorously observes moments of daily life on the Jerusalem tramway. The film stars 36 Israeli actors Yaël Abecassis, Hanna Laszlo, singer Noa Achinoam Nini, Palestinians and Europeans
Mathieu Amalric Mathieu Amalric (; born 25 October 1965) is a French actor and filmmaker. He is best known internationally for his roles in the James Bond film ''Quantum of Solace'', in which he played the lead villain, Steven Spielberg's ''Munich'', Wes Ander ...
and Pippo Delbono. On this tramway line that connects several neighborhoods in Jerusalem, from east to west, recording their variety and differences, this comedy humorously looks at moments in the daily lives of a few passengers, brief encounters that reveal a whole mosaic of human beings. It is these fragments of stories and memories that make up the contemporary reality of Israel. The film is preceded by Amos Gitai's ''A Letter to a Friend in Gaza'' (2018, 34 mins, in Hebrew & Arabic), which responds to the current crisis between Israel and Gaza. Tao Palestinians and two Israelis read texts inspired by Mahmoud Darwish, Yizhar Smilansky, Emile Habibi and
Amira Hass Amira Hass ( he, עמירה הס; born 28 June 1956) is an Israeli journalist and author, mostly known for her columns in the daily newspaper ''Haaretz'' covering Palestinian affairs in the West Bank and Gaza, where she has lived for almost th ...
, as an homage to a famous letter written by
Albert Camus Albert Camus ( , ; ; 7 November 1913 – 4 January 1960) was a French philosopher, author, dramatist, and journalist. He was awarded the 1957 Nobel Prize in Literature at the age of 44, the second-youngest recipient in history. His work ...
in 1943, which gives its title to the film. The work of the filmmaker Amos Gitai has nearly 90 titles, made over approximately 40 years. To these must be added video installations, theatre productions and books. His work is indeed varied, but this diversity is extremely coherent. Over the years, travels, struggles, exile, encounters, Amos Gitaï articulates and re-articulates works which, in their shimmering, never cease to respond to and echo each other. He is now one of the most respected filmmakers on the international scene, and continues to explore new narrative and stylistic avenues, always in relation to contemporary reality, even when the narrative takes a detour into the historical or mythological past.


Novel adaptations

Gitai created several novel adaptations. ''Devarim'' is an adaptation of
Yaakov Shabtai Yaakov Shabtai ( he, יעקב שבתאי; March 8, 1934 – August 4, 1981) was an Israeli novelist, playwright, and translator. Biography Shabtai was born in 1934 in Tel Aviv, Mandatory Palestine. In 1957, after completing military service, he ...
's ''Past Continuous''. ''One day you'll understand'' ("Plus tard tu comprendras", 2008) is based on an autobiographical book by Jérôme Clément, president of the Arte television channel and one of the leading figures of French culture, and tells the story of a French writer tracing the story of his Jewish mother (
Jeanne Moreau Jeanne Moreau (; 23 January 1928 – 31 July 2017) was a French actress, singer, screenwriter, director, and socialite. She made her theatrical debut in 1947, and established herself as one of the leading actresses of the Comédie-Française. M ...
) and her family during World War II. '' Roses à crédit'' (2010) is an adaptation of the novel by Elsa Triolet and takes a look at the materialist, post-war world of the French lower middle-class. The film was shot entirely in France. In 2014 he directs the film ''Tsili'' , inspired by the novel by
Aharon Appelfeld Aharon Appelfeld ( he, אהרן אפלפלד; born Ervin Appelfeld; February 16, 1932 – January 4, 2018) was an Israeli novelist and Holocaust survivor. Biography Ervin Appelfeld was born in Jadova Commune, Storojineț County, in the Bukovina ...
, and tells the story of the wandering of its heroine submerged in the nightmare of the Second World War. Tsili, a young Jewish woman, gathers all the forces of intuition and vitality to survive in this desperate universe. starring
Sarah Adler Sarah Adler ( he, שרה אדלר; born 1978) is a French and Israeli actress with dual citizenship. Career Adler is now best known for her performances in the 2017 Israeli films ''Foxtrot'' and '' The Cakemaker''; earlier in her career her nota ...
, Meshi Olinski, and
Lea Koenig Lea Koenig (or Lia Koenig; he, ליא קניג; born Lea Kamien; 30 November 1929) is an Israeli actress,
ni ...
. adapted from a novel by Aharon Appelfeld, he returns to the Second World War and the Holocaust:


Exhibitions and publications

Cinema installations, exhibitions and book publications are integral to Gitai's work. He has exhibited and published in leading institutions in Israel and around the world such as the
Israel Museum The Israel Museum ( he, מוזיאון ישראל, ''Muze'on Yisrael'') is an art and archaeological museum in Jerusalem. It was established in 1965 as Israel's largest and foremost cultural institution, and one of the world’s leading encyclopa ...
in Jerusalem, the Tel Aviv Museum, the Pompidou Center in Paris,
MoMa Moma may refer to: People * Moma Clarke (1869–1958), British journalist * Moma Marković (1912–1992), Serbian politician * Momčilo Rajin (born 1954), Serbian art and music critic, theorist and historian, artist and publisher Places ; ...
in New York, the
Reina Sofia Museum Reina (the Spanish word for queen) or La Reina may refer to: Geography * Reina, Badajoz, a municipality in the province of Badajoz, Extremadura, Spain * Reina, Estonia, a village in Saaremaa Parish, Saare County, Estonia * La Reina, a commune ...
in Madrid and more. Many of his exhibitions were dedicated to his parents Munio and Efratia, such as the 1996 retrospective initiated at the Pompidou Center, which deals with the work of his father (the only retrospective devoted to an Israeli architect in the Paris Museum) or the publication of his mother's letters - Efratia Gitai's letters in 1994. In 2011, he presents the exhibition ''Traces'' at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, the Bauhaus Museum in Dessau, Germany and the Art Museum at Kibbutz Ein Harod in Israel. In ''Traces'', Gitai creates an audio-visual stroll with great intimacy through images taken from fourteen of his films. Images and sounds, side by side, of destroyed walls in World War II, in them stolen property of the Jews living there, or of a crowd chanting "Mussolini" during Mussolini's granddaughter's election campaign in a video taken in Auschwitz. From the violent reality of the Middle East to the soft waltz of a veteran couple on the evening of their arrest. The journey Gitai offered is challenging and shaky, evoking the violence of its history and echoes, and creating a personal reflection on the xenophobia that can change fates. In doing so, Gitai builds the sensitive conditions for sharing the memory of places and of events. In the same year, Gitai inaugurated the Museum of Architecture Munio Gitai Weinrov in his father's old offices in Haifa. After directing his film ''Rabin, The Last Day'' in 2015, Gitai continues investigating Rabin's murder in presenting the exhibition ''Yitzhak Rabin : Chronicle of an Assassination'', presented at the MAXXI Museum in Rome, Italy, at the BOZAR Museum in Brussels, Belgium and at the Fondation Lambert in Avignon, France. Through working with ceramics, photographs and video installations, Gitai enables a new reading of the events leading up to the murder. He also presents the exhibition ''Before and After'', featuring two experimental films he filmed on his Super 8 camera during the 1973 Yom Kippur War. The film ''Before and After'' and ''Black and White'' are exhibited along with still photographs. In ''Before and after'', Gitai returns to the his traumatic injury during a helicopter crash from which he managed to escape. The Super 8 camera shows the military jacket he wore at the time of the accident. It becomes the film's central figure. Along with the series of photographs presented, Gitai continues his post-mortem decoding work of the moment the experience becomes a personal memory. It is a process in which the subject disappears; What appears in its place is extreme compression of thick, grainy material, which translates to the stigma of the time and makes a picturesque feeling appear. What artistic situations can give a proper description of that event, to that trauma? What traces remain in memory - a few weeks after, or forty years after? The artist's journey is mutually and simultaneously fed by both film and still photography. In July 2016, a 540-page book on Amos Gitai was published by Galerie Enrico Navarra and Sébastien Moreu. The book includes more than 250 reproductions from movies and research, but also family archives and creations by Amos Gitai and 7 conversations between Gitai and : Hans-Ulrich Obrist,
Guy Amsellem Guy or GUY may refer to: Personal names * Guy (given name) * Guy (surname) * That Guy (...), the New Zealand street performer Leigh Hart Places * Guy, Alberta, a Canadian hamlet * Guy, Arkansas, US, a city * Guy, Indiana, US, an uninco ...
, Arthur Miller,
Hou Hanru Hou Hanru (; born 1963 in Guangzhou, China) is an international art curator and critic based in San Francisco, Paris and Rome. He is Artistic Director of the MAXXI in Rome, Italy. Biography Hou graduated from the Central Academy of Fine Arts ...
, Annette Michelson,
Richard Ingersoll Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from Old Frankish and is a compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' and ''*hardu-'' 'strong, brave, hardy', and it therefore means 'str ...
, Elisabeth Lebovici &
Stephan Levine Stephan may refer to: * Stephan, South Dakota, United States * Stephan (given name), a masculine given name * Stephan (surname), a Breton-language surname See also * Sankt-Stephan * Stefan (disambiguation) * Stephan-Oterma * Stephani * Stephe ...
), two poems (Mount Carmel and Lullaby to My Father) and a poetic essay on the Golem.


Theatrical performances

In Gitai's body of work can also be found stage works. Like his cinematic interest, also in his theatrical pieces, Gitai focuses on the tension between the personal and the historical, between the local and the universal. Many of his works have been presented at leading institutions around the world, such as the
Avignon Festival The ''Festival d'Avignon'', or Avignon Festival, is an annual arts festival held in the French city of Avignon every summer in July in the courtyard of the Palais des Papes as well as in other locations of the city. Founded in 1947 by Jean Vila ...
in France, the Paris Philharmonic and the
Lincoln Center Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (also simply known as Lincoln Center) is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It has thirty indoor and outdoor facilities and is host to 5 milli ...
in New York. Among his works, ''Metamorphosis of a Melody'' that opened the Venice Biennale in 1993 and ''The War of the Sons of Light Against the Sons of Darkness'' ''with
Jeanne Moreau Jeanne Moreau (; 23 January 1928 – 31 July 2017) was a French actress, singer, screenwriter, director, and socialite. She made her theatrical debut in 1947, and established herself as one of the leading actresses of the Comédie-Française. M ...
'' that was presented in Festival d'Avignon in 2009 and in Odeon Theater in Paris in 2010. At the same year he created the piece ''Efratia Gitai: Letters'', which premiered at the Odeon Theater in Paris in 2010. Similar to ''The War of the Sons of Light Against the Sons of Darkness,'' Gitai worked with Jeanne Moreau who was reading his mother's letters. Another piece is ''Yitzhak Rabin : Chronicle of an Assassination'', created following the movie Rabin, The Last Day (2015) and premiered at the 2016 Avignon Festival. In this work, Gitai draws on the memories of Leah Rabin, the prime minister's wife, and produces like a parable liberated from all formalism. Four female heroines, four voices reciting the text that becomes a text between lament and lullaby, recreate the unprecedented course of history and violence in which the nationalist forces opposed the peace project led by Yitzhak Rabin, by defection and incitement. Four voices taken, as if "in an echo chamber," between documentary imagery and extracts from classical literature - the same vivid memory that always accompanied the filmmaker and director in his understanding of Israeli state and society. In 2019, the stage version of ''A Letter to a Friend in Gaza'' premiered at the Spoleto Festival in the United States. The piece is of a captivating, demanding, challenging and lyrical multimedia. At a time when art and entertainment are often synonymous, the play restores confidence in the theater's ability to ask difficult political and cultural questions. The audience cannot remain passive, and takes on the difficult task of understanding the theatrical experience in the face of his thoughts, perceptions and opinions regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Instead of proposing theory or solution, the play serves as a powerful trigger for much-needed political imagination. ''A Letter to a Friend in Gaza'' was originally a 34-minute film screened in 2018 at the Venice Festival. It was Nigel Redon, the director of the Spoleto Festival, who suggested Gitai to work on a stage version for the festival. His film and stage work share texts and actors, yet, paradoxically, the structure and feel of the film seem more theatrical, while the open horizon and stratified composition of the half-hour theatrical version give the impression of cinema.


Teachings and conferences

Amos Gitai often teaches and attends conferences around the world. In 2017, he was a guest professor at
University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant un ...
, where he studied in his youth. His lectures focused on his documentary and fictional work. Through the screening of several films, the audience was able to dive into Israel's political and social issues. As a skilled architect, Gitai has a unique way of understanding and representing a human experience through time and space, and through the films ''House'', ''City'' and ''Border'', Gitai managed to present a complex narrative and image of Israel in the context of a larger global discourse. In 2018, after being elected as chair in Artistic Creation at the Collége de France in Paris, Gitai was invited to give a series of 12 lessons and lectures on his cinematic work through an ethical, political and artistic lens, called 'Crossing the Borders'. His lessons were: The documentary as metaphor; "I don't politicise my films, they have politicised me"; Depicting War; Space and Structure, Cinema and Architecture; Cinema and History; Is Cinema More Authoritarian Than Literature?; Collective Mythologies and Memories; Chronicle of an Assassination. In 2019, he was a guest professor at
Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
in New York.


Filmography


Fiction

* ''
Laila in Haifa ''Laila in Haifa'' is a 2020 Israeli-French drama film directed by Amos Gitai. It was selected to be shown in the main competition section of the 77th Venice International Film Festival The 77th annual Venice International Film Festival was ...
'' (2020) * ''A Tramway in Jerusalem'' (2018) * ''
Rabin, the Last Day ''Rabin, the Last Day'' is a 2015 Israeli-French docudrama political thriller film directed by Amos Gitai. It was selected to compete for the Golden Lion at the 72nd Venice International Film Festival. Premise The film depicts the events surr ...
'' (2015) * ''
Tsili ''Tsili'' is a 2014 drama film directed by Amos Gitai and based on the novel of the same name by Aharon Appelfeld. It was screened at the 71st Venice International Film Festival in an out of competition slot. Cast * Sarah Adler as Tsili * M ...
'' (2014) * '' Ana Arabia'' (2013) * ''
Lullaby to My Father ''Lullaby to My Father'' is a 2012 documentary film directed by Amos Gitai that premiered at the Venice Film Festival. The film relates the story of Gitai's father, Munio Weinraub (1909-1970), an eminent Israeli architect. Weinraub was a studen ...
'' (2011) * (2010) * (2010) * ' (2009) * ''One Day You Will Understand (Plus tard tu compremderas'' (2008) * '' Disengagement'' (2007) * '' Free Zone'' (2005) * ''
Promised Land The Promised Land ( he, הארץ המובטחת, translit.: ''ha'aretz hamuvtakhat''; ar, أرض الميعاد, translit.: ''ard al-mi'ad; also known as "The Land of Milk and Honey"'') is the land which, according to the Tanakh (the Hebrew ...
'' (2004) * '' Alila'' (2003) * ''
Kedma Orthodox Jewish student groups exist at many secular colleges and universities in the diaspora, especially in the United States, Canada, and Europe. History At some points in history there were umbrella organization that united Orthodox students ...
'' (2002) * ' (2001) * '' Kippur'' (2000) * '' Kadosh'' (1999) * ' (1998) * ' (1995) * ''Golem The Petrified Garden'' (1993) * ''Golem, the Spirit of Exile'' (1991) * ''Birth of a Golem'' (1990) * '' Berlin-Jerusalem'' (1989) * '' Esther'' (1985)


Documentaries

* ''Letter to A Friend in Gaza'' (2019) * ''West of the Jordan River'' (2017) * ''Reflections on Architecture'' (2016) * ''Architecture in Israel: Conversations with Amos Gitai'' (2013) * ''The War of the Sons of Light Against the Sons of Darkness'' (2009) * ''New from Home / News from House'' (2005) * ''Wadi Grand Canyon 2001'' (2001) * ''Zion, Auto-Emancipation'' (1998) * ' (1998) * ''Orange (Tapuz)'' (1998) * '' Kippur, War Memories'' (1997) * ''War and Peace in Vesoul'' (1997) * ''The Arena of murder'' (1996) * ''Munio Weinraub Gitai Architect (1909-1970)'' (1996) * ''Milim'' (1996) * '' Metamorphosis of a Melody'' (1996) * ''
Queen Mary '87 Queen or QUEEN may refer to: Monarchy * Queen regnant, a female monarch of a Kingdom ** List of queens regnant * Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king * Queen dowager, the widow of a king * Queen mother, a queen dowager who is the mo ...
'' (1994) * '' Give Peace a Chance'' (1994) ''Part 1: In the Land of Oranges'' ''Part 2: Political Route'' ''Part 3: Writers Speak'' ''Part 4: Theater For Life'' * '' In the Name of the Duce'' (1994) * '' In the Valley of the Wupper'' (1993) * '' Wadi, Ten Years After'' (1991) * ''Brand New Day'' (1987) * ''Reagan: Image for Sale'' (1984) * ''Bangkok-Bahrein/Labour for sale'' (1984) * ''Pineapple (Ananas)'' (1983) * ''Field Diary (Yoman sade)'' (1982) * '' Wadi'' (1981) * ''American Mythologies'' (1981) * ''In Search of Identity'' (1980) * ''House (Bayit)'' (1980) * ''Wadi Salib Riots'' (1979)


Short films

* ''Words With Gods'' (2014) * ''The Book of Amos'' (2012) * ''The Dybbuk of Haifa'' (2007) * ''September 11 - 11'09'01' '' (2002) * ''Surgeon General's Warning'' (2001) * ''Reagan: Image for Sale'' (1984) * ''American Mythologies'' (1981) * ''In Search of Identity'' (1980) * ''Cultural Celebrities'' (1979) * ''Jimmy Carter's visit in Israel'' (1979) * ''Wadi Rushmia'' (1978) * ''Architectura'' (1978) * ''Under the Water'' (1977) * ''Singing in Afula'' (1977) * ''Public House'' (1977) * ''Political Myths'' (1977) * ''Hagvul (The Border)'' (1977) * ''Dimitri'' (1977) * ''Charisma'' (1975) * ''My Mother at the Seashore'' (1975) * ''Lucy'' (1974) * ''Blowing Glass'' (1974) * ''The International Orthodontist Congress'' (1974) * ''Pictures in the Exhibition'' (1974) * ''Memphis U.S.A (part 2)'' (1974) * ''Memphis U.S.A. (Faces)'' (1974) * ''Water'' (1974) * ''Ahare (Images After War)'' (1974) * ''Images of War 1, 2, 3'' (1974) * ''Arlington U.S.A'' (1974) * ''Shosh'' (1973) * ''Talking About Ecology'' (1973) * ''Fire Eats Paper, Paper Eats Fire'' (1973) * ''Memories of a comrade of the 2nd Aliya'' (1972) * ''Windows in David Pinsky no.5'' (1972) * ''Souk Women’s dialogues'' (1972) * ''Waves (Galim)'' (1972) * ''Geography according to Modern man and His Control on the Environnement'' (1972) * ''Textures'' (1972) * ''Black Is White'' (1972) * ''Details of Architecture'' (1972) * ''Arts and Crafts and Technology'' (1972)


Exhibitions/Installations

* ''Champs de mémoire,'
Théâtre de la Ville
Paris, France, 2019 * ''The Law of the Pursuer,'
SAVVY Contemporary
Berlin, Allemagne, 2017 * ''Yitzhak Rabin: Chronicle of an Assassination,''
MAXXI MAXXI ( it, Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo, italic=no, "national museum of 21st-century arts") is a national museum of contemporary art and architecture in the Flaminio neighborhood of Rome, Italy. The museum is managed by a foundation ...
, Rome, Italie, 2016; Bozar-Centre for Fine Arts, Bruxelles, Belgique, 2016
Collection Lambert
Avignon, France, 2016
Galerie 75 Faubourg
Paris, France, 2017 * ''Amos Gitai Before and After''
Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac
Salzbourg, Villa Kast, Autriche, 2015 * ''Amos Gitai Architecte de la mémoire,'' Cinémathèque française, Paris, France, 2014; Musée de l’Élysée, Lausanne, Suisse, 2015
Cinéma Galeries
Bruxelles, Belgique, 2015 * ''Amos Gitai Strade , Ways Talking to Gabriele – Carpet – Lullaby to my Father,'
Palazzo Reale
Salle des Cariatides, Milan, Italie, 2014–15 * ''Amos Gitai Army Days Horizontal. Army Days Vertical''
Galerie Thaddeus Ropac
Espace de Pantin, France, 2014 * ''Las biografías de Amos Gitai'',
Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía The ''Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía'' ("Queen Sofía National Museum Art Centre"; MNCARS) is Spain's national museum of 20th-century art. The museum was officially inaugurated on September 10, 1992, and is named for Queen Sofía. It ...
, Madrid, Spain, 2014 * ''Before and After''
Galerie Thaddeus Ropac
Espace de Pantin, France, 2014; Villa Kast, Salzbourg, Austria 2015 * ''Disaster – The End of Days''
Galerie Thaddeus Ropac
Espace de Pantin, France, 2014 * ''Amos Gitai Architecture de la mémoire''
Église des Frères-PrêcheursRencontres photographiques de Arles
France, 2012 * ''Amos Gitai Architetture della memoria'', Mole Antonelliana
Museo Nazionale del Cinema
Turin, Italie, 2011- 2012 * ''Traces. Lullaby to My Father''
Museum of Art
Ein Harod, Israel, 2011; Meisterhaus Vassily Kandinsky/Paul Klee – Dining room, Bauhaus, Dessau, Germany, 2011 * ''Traces. Efratia’s Correspondence''
Museum of Art
Ein Harod, Israel, 2011 * ''Traces - Munio Gitai Weinraub''
Museum of Art
Ein Harod, Israel, 2011 * ''Amos Gitai Traces'', Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France, 2011 * ''Lullaby for my father'', a video presentation in Kibbutz Kfar Masaryk, Israel, 2010 * ''Amos Gitai Citations'', Biennale Evento, Base sous-marine, Bordeaux, France, 2009 * ''Munio Weinraub, Amos Gitai Architektur und Film in Israel''
Pinakothek der Moderne-Architektur Museum
Munich, Germany, 2009;
Tel Aviv Museum of Art Tel Aviv Museum of Art ( he, מוזיאון תל אביב לאמנות ''Muzeon Tel Aviv Leomanut'') is an art museum in Tel Aviv, Israel. The museum is dedicated to the preservation and display of modern and contemporary art from Israel and aro ...
, Israel, 2009 * ''Amos Gitai: Non-Fiction'',
MoMA Moma may refer to: People * Moma Clarke (1869–1958), British journalist * Moma Marković (1912–1992), Serbian politician * Momčilo Rajin (born 1954), Serbian art and music critic, theorist and historian, artist and publisher Places ; ...
, New York, 2008 * ''Amos Gitai News From House News From Home'', Kunst-Werke, Berlin, Germany, 2006
Centre chorégraphique national
Montpellier, France, 2006 * ''In memory of Munio Gitai Weinraub'',
Centre Pompidou The Centre Pompidou (), more fully the Centre national d'art et de culture Georges-Pompidou ( en, National Georges Pompidou Centre of Art and Culture), also known as the Pompidou Centre in English, is a complex building in the Beaubourg area of ...
, Paris, France, 2006 * ''Amos Gitai Parcours'',
Centre Pompidou The Centre Pompidou (), more fully the Centre national d'art et de culture Georges-Pompidou ( en, National Georges Pompidou Centre of Art and Culture), also known as the Pompidou Centre in English, is a complex building in the Beaubourg area of ...
, Paris, France, 2003 * ''Public Housing''
Museum of Art
Ein Harod, Israel;
Herzliya museum of contemporary art The Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art ( he, מוזיאון הרצליה לאמנות) is contemporary art museum. History The museum was established in 1965 in Herzeliya, Israel. The museum's main focus is on Israeli and international contempo ...
, Herzliya, Israel
Saitama Museum of Modern Art
Saitama, Japan, 2000; Jerusalem Museum, Israel, 1994 * ''Opening Chen Zhen''
Helena Rubinstein Pavillon
Tel Aviv, Israel, 1998 * ''Recycling Exhibition'',
Israel Museum The Israel Museum ( he, מוזיאון ישראל, ''Muze'on Yisrael'') is an art and archaeological museum in Jerusalem. It was established in 1965 as Israel's largest and foremost cultural institution, and one of the world’s leading encyclopa ...
, Jerusalem, Israel, 1975


Performances

* ''Yitzhak Rabin: Chronicle of an Assassination'', Theatre de la Ville, Paris, France, 2021
Coronet Theater of London
UK, 2021; Philharmonie de Paris, France, 2018
John Anson Ford Theater
Los Angeles, USA, 2017
Lincoln Center Festival
New York, USA, 2017; Festival d'Avignon, France, 2016 *''Interior Exiles'', Theatre de la Ville, Paris, France, 2020 *''Otello,'' Teatro di San Carlo, Naples, Italy, 2016 *''A Reading of Efratia Gitai Correspondence,'' Odéon-Théâtre de l’Europe, Paris, France, 201
Coronet Theater of London
UK, 2019;
MoMa Moma may refer to: People * Moma Clarke (1869–1958), British journalist * Moma Marković (1912–1992), Serbian politician * Momčilo Rajin (born 1954), Serbian art and music critic, theorist and historian, artist and publisher Places ; ...
, New York, USA, 2020 * ''Letter to a Friend in Gaza'', Coronet Theater of London, UK, 2019; Theatre de la Ville, Paris, France, 2019; Emmet Robinson Theater, Spoleto Festival, Charleston, USA, 2019 * ''The War of the Sons of Light Against the Sons of Darkness'', Odéon-Théâtre de l’Europe, Paris, France 2010; Festival d'Avignon, France, 2009; Fortress Rumeli Hisari, Istanbul, Turkey, 2009;
Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...
, Italy, 1993 * ''Metamorphosis of a Melody,''
Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...
, 1993; Gibellina, Sicily, Italy, 1992


Books

*''Amos Gitai / Yitzhak Rabin Chroniques d'un assassinat'', Antoine de Baeque, Patrick Boucheron, Ouzi Elyada, Amos Gitai, Marie-José Sanselme, Éditions Gallimard / Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris, 2021 *''Efratia Gitai Correspondence,'' Rivka Markovizky (ed.), CPL Editions (Memoirs & Biographies) Centro Primo Levi, New York, 2018 – ISBN 1941046258; (In Hebrew) Yediot Aharonot, Tel-Aviv, 2011 * ''Efratia Gitai, (1929–1994)'', Rivka Markovizky (dir.), Éditions Gallimard, Paris, 2010 * ''Genèses'', Jean-Michel Frodon, Amos Gitai, Marie-José Sanselme, Éditions Gallimard, Paris, 2009 *''Munio Weinraub / Amos Gitai – Architektur und Film in Israel,'' Architektur Museum - Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich, 2008 *''News from Home,'' Amos Gitai, Walther König, Köln, 2006 * ''Monte Carmelo'', Amos Gitai, Bompiani, Milano, 2004 * ''Mont Carmel'', Amos Gitai, Éditions Gallimard, 2003 * '' Parcours'', Amos Gitai, Centre Pompidou, Paris, 2003 *''Kippour'' ''(scénario)'', Amos Gitai, Marie-José Sanselme, Arte Editions / 00h00.com, Paris, 2003 * '' The War of the Sons of Light Against the Sons of Darkness'', Amos Gitai, Mazzotta, Milano, 1993


Books on Amos Gitai's work

* ''Amos Gitai'', Galerie Enrico Navarra, éditions Sébastien Moreu, Paris, 2016 *''Amos Gitai architecte de la mémoire,'' Serge Toubiana, Paul Willemen, Jean-Michel Frodon, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Annette Michelson, Marie-José Sanselme, Mathieu Orléan, Éditions Gallimard/Cinémathèque française, Paris, 2014 *''Genèses'', Jean-Michel Frodon, Amos Gitai, Marie-José Sanselme, Éditions Gallimard, Paris, 2009. * ''Cinema di Amos Gitai: Frontiere e territori (Il)'', Serge Toubiana, Bruno Mondadori, Torino, 2006 * ''Amos Gitai: News from Home'', Walther König, Köln, 2006 * ''The Cinema of Amos Gitai'',''Serge Toubiana'', Baptiste Piégay, Lincoln Center / Cahiers du cinéma, Paris, 2005 * ''Amos Gitai'', ''Serge Toubiana'', Mostra internacional de cinema / Cosac Naify, São Paulo, 2004 * ''Exilios y territories, el cine de Amos Gitai'', Serge Toubiana, Baptiste Piégay, Semana Internacional de Cine, Valladolid, 2004 * ''Exils et territoires: le cinéma d'Amos Gitai'', Serge Toubiana, Baptiste Piégay, Arte Editions / Cahiers du cinéma, Paris, 2003 * ''Amos Gitai, Cinema, Politics, Aesthetics'', Irma Klein, KM, Tel Aviv, 2003 * ''Amos Gitai, Cinema forza di pace'', Edited by Daniela Turco, Le Mani, Genova, 2002 * ''Munio Gitai Weinraub, Bauhaus architect in Israel'', Richard Ingersoll, Electa, Milano, 1994 * ''The Films of Amos Gitai'', a Montage, Edited by Paul Willemen, BFI Publishing, London, 1993 * ''Amos Gitai'', Edited by Alberto Farassino, Mostra Internazionale Riminicinema, Rimini, 1989


References

Amos Gitai: Exile and Atonement, ''Ray Privett'', Cinema Purgatorio, 2008.


External links


Official website
*
Amos Gitai
Hollywood.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Gitai, Amos 1950 births Living people People from Haifa Israeli filmmakers French film directors Israeli male screenwriters Israeli architects Israeli Jews Israeli film directors Roberto Rossellini Prize recipients Israeli people of the Yom Kippur War Hebrew Reali School alumni UC Berkeley College of Environmental Design alumni