LiPSTIKKA memory fools
A film by Jonathan Sagall
UK/Israel 3122
Starring Clara Khoury, Nataly Attiya, Daniel Caltagirone, Moran Roseblatt, Ziv Weiner, Gal Lev, Ofer Hayoun, Taliesin Knight
For further information contact : Obelis Productions (Israel) Gal Films (UK) P.O. Box 18171 Tel-Aviv 61181 Israel E-mail: [email protected]
Jonathan Sagall Israel Mobile Phone: +972-54-309-1900 UK Mobile Phone: +44-7746-230-594 E-mail: [email protected]
Guy Allon UK Mobile Phone: +44-7816-414-552 E-mail: [email protected]
Check our website at: http://www.lipstikka-themovie.com
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Short Synopsis Lara and Inam, two Palestinian women, have moved to London to begin a new life. But it seems that whatever memories they have from their past, confusing and complex as they may be, cannot be left behind.
Medium Synopsis Lipstikka is a psychological drama which depicts the emotional and sexual bond between Lara & Inam, two Palestinian teenage girls from the West Bank.
In the midst of the political turmoil of the 1st Intifada, they decide to break the curfew imposed by the Israel military, and sneak into the Jewish part of Jerusalem to see a movie. What begins as a youthful prank, soon evolves into a twisted set of events.
Fifteen years later, they meet in London as adult women, and realize that what they remember from their past may not necessarily reflect what indeed happened.
Long Synopsis Lara (Clara Khoury) is a Palestinian woman who came to London to begin a new life. She married Michael (Daniel Catagirone), and now lives a comfortable but somewhat loveless life with her husband and seven year old son James (Taliesen Knight). Her home is meticulously neat, and is situated in a cozy and manicured part of London. Apparently, life is orderly, although more often than not, she sips her vodka straight from the bottle.
A knock on her door disrupts her daily routine. Inam (Nataly Attiya), her childhood friend from Ramallah, shows up on her doorstep. There is an instant sense of tension between the two women, as Inam worms her way into her home, pokes questions about her husband, who's left for work, and becomes disturbingly friendly with her son. It doesn't take long before Lara realizes, that whatever life she's managed to create for herself, is easily shattered by Inam's overwhelming intrusion.
Best friends since their teenage days in the West Bank the demure Lara and the sexy Inam share a closeness borne out of their past adolescent sexual experiences.
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As young women, they had arrived in London to study English and put the past behind them. While their destinies have taken very different paths, they share events which, however deep they're buried, are something they will never escape.
Years before, as schoolgirls during the 1st intifada (Palestinian civil uprising), they decide to defy the curfew regulations imposed by the Israeli military regime and sneak out of Ramallah to see a film in the Jewish part of Jerusalem, approx 15 kms away.
In the cinema, they notice two young Israeli soldiers who take a liking to the two girls. The soldiers, believing them to be Italian tourists, invite them to come for a drink.
What begins as an adolescent prank soon turns into an unexpected twist of events.
What indeed happens is prone to personal interpretation. Memories tend to play tricks, especially if they touch the very core of our fears.
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Writer/Director Notes – “get your ass back home and make a movie about it!”
I can‟t say LiPSTIKKA was inspired by one single thing.
It wasn‟t.
Stories rarely are.
Many drafts of the screenplay were written and rewritten through the years. Draft number 56 was the one we actually shot.
If anyone insisted on my explaining what mostly inspired me to write Lipstikka – I would probably say that I was inspired – amongst other things - by memories.
Memories of my childhood in Toronto, my youth in Haifa, my high-school days, my Israeli army service days, my romantic/sexual experiences, my buddies, my family… memories of people in the street, sometimes utter strangers, sometimes people who‟ve never existed.
Some memories are sharp and clear, others were reshaped by time and therefore remain blurry. Some are an utter lie.
One summer afternoon, a few years ago, I was sitting with a dear friend of mine in her Toronto back yard. We were sipping vodka and discussing memories of youth, sex, aging and other issues that people go on about. Then, somehow, the discussion slid onto the situation in the Middle East, the Occupation and the violence in Israel which is my home. I expressed my sadness, my frustration and anger about the many years of pointless bloodshed.
My friend then said something which made way to yet another draft of Lipstikka - she said - “well, my dear, if this is so frustrating for you, get your ass back home and make a movie about it”.
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Writer/Director Notes – on personal truth vs. fiction
Like any story that people tell – personal experiences often lead us to embellish, re-invent and create twists that, more often that not, have nothing to do with what happened in reality.
Admittedly, I've done that too.
I've taken bits and parts of my past, added my fears, my hopes… my political frustrations… and created what may (or may not) touch the hearts of people who would want to listen.
Welcome to Lipstikka.
Writer/Director Notes - on structure and intention
Lipstikka was originally written as a completely different story. It has fierce elements of my own childhood which, with every rewrite, have faded. Perhaps disappeared.
Choosing the leaps in time was something I felt the screenplay needed to explain Inam. Although I originally intended for her to be the heroine of the story, she slowly evolved into becoming a subject of a study.
I was intrigued about Inam's personal story. What made her work. How she dealt with fear, sexuality, friendship. I became an onlooker. A voyeur. Was Inam slowly becoming me? Was I becoming her?…. I needed to leap out and watch her from the side… or allow someone to watch her for me.
Consequently, Lara has taken on the role as Inam‟s onlooker and became my story teller.
Writer/Director Notes - on people and fear
Many people walk around with emotional scars that we never see. We know nothing about them. They're strangers. We often fail to ask where they come from and what they carry from their past. We respond to an immediate external impression and pass hasty judgments.
Is this due to indifference, foolishness… fear?
Fear is something that may lead to great achievements. Fear carries us through life and often keeps us from tripping over our own misconceptions.
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But fear also keeps us from moving on and doing good to ourselves and to others. We fear being hurt, we fear knives, guns (but we use them assuming others fear them too), we fear making fools of ourselves, we fear crowds, ghosts, policemen, ocean waves, we fear becoming parents, then we fear for our children, we fear losing our faith, our minds, our love… We fear failure, gossip, criticism, dogs, illness, funerals, death… sometimes even life.
Fear is a motivator. Fear is a paralyser.
Fear makes us judge.
Brave people are not people who don't fear. Brave people are those who overcome fear and act despite it.
Are Lara and Inam driven by fear? How do they deal with fear? Are they brave? I'm not certain I have a definite answer to that, but I do feel they are both strongly motivated by fear of loneliness.
Writer/Director Notes - on starting over
Starting over comes with a price. Inam's and Lara's past is not something they can escape, no matter how deep they bury it into their subconscious.
Memories are there whether we like them or not. Sometimes it's best just to give in, take them as they come and make them our friends.
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Writer/Director Notes - on casting Clara Khoury (Lara)
The first time I saw Clara Khoury in real life was about four years ago. It was at the backstage of the Israeli Academy Awards ceremony where we'd both presented prizes to our colleagues in the film biz. She wore a snazzy dress and her hair was pulled back tight accentuating her fabulous green eyes and her monumental and glorious nose. Her image has not left me and when we began to think of casting Lara, I remembered her from that night, and knew right there and then that she's a perfect fit.
Clara never auditioned for the role. But the many times that we auditioned other actresses for Inam, I knew she felt she was being tested as well. She wasn‟t because from the first time I watched the tapes I was absolutely certain - Clara Khoury was our Lara.
Writer/Director Notes - on casting Nataly Attiya (Inam)
Casting "Inam" was a huge challenge. Finding a bold enough actress who was open to the sexually driven character she would have to portray AND be Palestinian was - as one doubtful casting person put it – unbearably impossible.
We never managed to find a native Arab speaker who would take on Inam with open arms. Sex was always an issue, as well as nudity.
Nataly landed in our audition room after we've seen 40-50 actresses. She was spot on. Sexy, humble, highly intelligent and fresh. She was the perfect choice and she delved into Inam with an open heart.
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Writer/Director Notes - on removing political overtones and allowing air to breathe
I was asked why Lipstikka hadn't exposed more of the harsh background these two girls came from… perhaps expand more about the so called "political situation" in the region that has evoked me to create the setting of the girls' childhood in the West Bank.
Lipstikka is a story about people. Any “political” undertones (or overtones) are apparent. There‟s no need to offer interpretation other than what the audience will choose to interpret.
I am almost certain anything turns "political" once you place more than one person in a certain space. People want things. Want is our engine. “Politics” is always about want. Want and politics are interconnected, and so human behavior is always "political".
I want, I need, I envy, I pity, I love, I have sex, I take, I give, I conquer, I withdraw… There you have it - I'm political.
My sense is that the audience doesn‟t need to be spoon fed and lulled into yet another "political explanation" of the region's harsh reality… the first versions of the edit had Lara's voice-overs explain some of the “political” settings, why it was considered dangerous for any Palestinian to wander off towards the Jewish part of Jerusalem etc… there were also explanations about road blocks, check points, military hoops, but I felt those got in the way of the "personal breathe"… the air that these two girls sipped was naïve, sexed… they were aware of the dangers, especially Lara… they were born into occupation, suckled menace, inhaled fear, hate and violence, Jews killing Arabs, Arabs killing Jews… they were constantly warned about the rules and regulations their parents had to absorb as adults… they knew nothing else.
They were girls… Sixteen year-olds who cared about sixteen old stuff just like any sixteen year old… testing boundaries about emotion, love, sex, boys, dick and boobies. For them “Intifada” was adult matter.
Jonathan Sagall
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Clara Khoury talks
Khoury knew Sagall‟s work but had not worked with him before.
„He‟s like an icon, a superstar in Israel. I remembered him well from when we first met at the awards,‟ she says. „He and I are both children of actors. His mother is an actress who used to work in the same theatre as my father did in Haifa‟.
„What I can say about Jonathan, is that he is certainly courageous for making a film about women, and our struggle. Women, Arab women for sure, are a distinctly under-represented demographic of our world. Those who help telling their stories, are doing a special work of history. For example, if you want to know something real about a patriarchal society, you have to ask the women what they think, what is their experience‟.
„I found Lara an interesting character to play. She is closed, secretive, shy and in need of love. She‟s also passionate, but her passion is buried deep inside her. She wants to be loved. But she decides to hide it behind her life as a London housewife with a child and a British husband, living a middle class life, totally in denial of her past. She chooses to ignore her hidden memories, she chooses an alter ego‟.
„But, her memories chase her down, driving her to be more guilty and more lonely, forcing her to confront her past. She is simple and complex. That‟s nice to play with‟.
„For me it was not difficult to show Lara‟s feelings on film, because I have a dimension of myself which is also closed, and sometimes similar to the character. Most women do. So being Lara was fun for me. Each time I‟d find a little key inside myself and open up another „me‟‟.
„I didn‟t have to adapt to playing the role of a Palestinian woman because I am one. I choose to look for the human way of any situation or any character‟.
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Nataly Attiya Talks:
For Attiya, the role of Inam was a big change of pace.
„I hadn‟t acted for nearly five years because I was doing other things‟, says Attiya. „Then, one day when I was walking down the street I asked myself: “Why am I always saying NO to acting?” Two minutes later the phone rang and Jonathan wanted to see me for Inam. At first I said “no” and I went on vacation but then I read the script, hired myself an acting teacher to work on the role with, and then I did the audition. It was not the first time I auditioned for him - I auditioned for his first film about 10 or 12 years ago but didn‟t get the part!‟
„I was drawn to Inam because she‟s gone to extremes in her life although I don‟t think that she really feels that she is extreme. She knows that if you want to really feel life you are going to have not just happiness and joy but also be scared and sad. She wants to take big bites from life. She has so many things inside her. She‟s been through a lot of hard things but she doesn‟t pity herself, doesn‟t feel she‟s a victim of life. She is always changing - there are so many colours to Inam. She goes through all the pain and still is vivid‟.
„All the things Inam goes through are things that I am familiar with. Research was just looking into my past to play a Palestinian woman as I grew up with Palestinian children as friends. However, playing in English and also in Arabic was a big challenge. I‟ve never talked in Arabic even though I live in Israel‟.
Production Notes - About the Locations:
„London is the nearest English-speaking territory to Israel so it was logical to shoot part of Lipstikka in London rather than shooting in other places which are geographically further than London‟, says director Jonathan Sagall.
Locations used in London include a house in Totteridge and Whetstone for Lara‟s home, St. Joseph‟s RC Primary School in Neasden for James‟ school, HMS Belfast and Hemel Hempstead Hospital.
Locations for the Ramallah-based sections of the film were shot in the city of Ramla (sounds similar, but a completely different city), approximately 20kms south-east of Tel-Aviv. The “fumbling scene” was shot in a ruined house near Tel-Aviv-Jaffa. The Jerusalem cinema scene, including the exteriors, was shot inside and around the Jerusalem Cinemateque.
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About The Filmmakers:
JONATHAN SAGALL - writer/director/producer Toronto born Jonathan Sagall was raised (a suitcase kid) between Canada, the U.S. and Israel. He attended the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in London England.
"Drifting" (Nagua, Israel 1983), his first feature film as co-producer and leading actor, was presented at the Berlin International Film Festival 1984 and won various Israeli National Awards including Best Film, Best Leading Actor, Best Photography and Best Screenplay.
"Urban Feel" (Israel 1999), his first feature film as a writer-director-producer, premiered at the Golden Bear Official Competition at the Berlin International Film Festival 1999. The film was nominated in 12 categories for the Israeli Academy Awards 1999 and won two - Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress, followed by numerous national and International awards.
Sagall also wrote and directed two independent shorts, "Zerach Lipshitz‟ Last Little Vacation" and "At Home" (Babait) which was presented at the Berlin International Film Festival 1988.
He‟s written and directed three stage plays - "Lea Goes Out On The Street" (1993), "Cockroach" (1995) and "Easy Fixes to a Shitty Life" (2007). His series of short stories "The Lonely Life of Hugo Asparagus" were published in the Israeli press in 1996. He was a regular staff writer on the Israeli-Palestinian production of "Sesame Street" in 1998.
Among his many Film & TV acting credits are 'Bobby' in the popular Israeli film series "Lemon Popsicle" (Eis Am Stiel), 'Poldek Pfefferberg' in Steven Spielberg‟s "Schindler‟s List" (1993), 'Emanuel' in his own film "Urban Feel" (1999), and „Asaf Refaeli‟ in the Israeli Television drama series "Hamakom" (2008-2009).
Sagall lives in Tel-Aviv, Israel, where his production company Obelis Productions is based.
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GUY ALLON - UK Producer Guy Allon began his film career in the mid nineties, quickly advancing through the production ranks, and eventually becoming a producer. His most recent producer credit is the black comedy City Rats starring Danny Dyer and Susan Lynch, which premiered at the 2009 Slamdance Film Festival in London. He associate produced the feature film In Your Dreams starring Linda Hamilton, Dexter Fletcher and Susan George. He also produced The Other Man which won best short film at the 2006 Edinburgh Film Festival.
JOHN REISS - Executive Producer John Reiss is a serial entrepreneur in media and consumer businesses. He has been engaged in film production, financing and marketing for over 25 years back to Thorn Emi Screen Entertainment, George Harrison‟s HandMade Films and more recently as an independent producer. Over a decade working with David Willing he built Picture Production Company to be the leading specialist film marketing agency outside North America. They sold this business in 2007. Reiss is executive chairman of international entertainment public relations agency Premier PR (owned jointly with Willing), of post house Dubbs/EyeFrame, and of businesses in market research, educational supply, cinema operation and a number of high tech ventures.
DAVID WILLING - Executive Producer David Willing has worked in film marketing for almost 25 years. He was Director of Advertising at UIP, Director of Sales and Marketing at Pathe, and from 1998 to 2007 with John Reiss built up and subsequently sold Picture Production Company to be the leading specialist film marketing agency outside North America. Since then he has focused as an independent producer of such properties as The Pinky and Perky Show for TV, feature film My Last Five Girlfriends released by Paramount, and currently is creator and producer for Disney of a 78 episode CGI animated series for children The Hive.
XIAXOSU HAN & ANDREAS THALHAMMER - Cinematographers China born Han and Austria born Thalhammer are two young cinematographers based in Europe, but are working on both feature films and commercials around the world. Self- educated through years of working in the lighting department, they made the jump from gaffers to cinematographers on low-budget feature films. Having worked together for the last nine feature films and numerous shorter projects in Europe, Asia and the US, their dedication to bring the directors vision onto the big screen is stronger than ever. Their latest feature films include Summertime in New York and The Baseline in London.
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YUVAL NETTER - Editor Based in Tel-Aviv, Yuval Netter shoots, edits and directs short length and feature films. A graduate of the Minshar School of Arts cinema program, Yuval worked as an editor, cinematographer and director on a number of short films and clips. He is also an avid stills photographer and plays guitar as well as several other instruments in a local band. Lipstikka is his first feature film as an Editor.
JODY JENKINS - Music After studying as a percussionist at the Royal Academy of Music, Jody Jenkins began focusing more on composition and orchestration. He had composed scores for several British drama and documentary series including Secrets of the Sexes for BBC Science and The Convent for Tiger Aspect. In film, as a percussionist and programmer, Jody has worked alongside Dario Marianelli on several well known scores such as Atonement and V for Vendetta. He scored his first feature length score for Hindi language film Aladin in 2009 and continues to work in television, film and TV commercials, where recent clients include BMW, Save The Children and Ford.
ROLAND HEAP - Sound Designer Roland Heap spans the disciplines of sound recording for music and film, having been born into analogue and raised digitally. He studied music and sound recording at the prestigious Tonmeister course and cut his teeth at Abbey Road studios, working on Hollywood film scores and classical recordings. More recently he has pioneered new methodologies for sound-for picture workflows, taking a holistic approach to the soundtrack from inception to deliverables. He now works as a sound designer and recordist, and has supervised the sound for a number of features, including Academy Award nominee Ashvin Kumar‟s feature The Forest and Sona Jain‟s feature For Real.
MYLES GRIMSDALE - UK Production Designer Myles Grimsdale has worked in design for more than twenty years. In that time he has collaborated with film directors including Tim Burton, the Coen Brothers, David Fincher, Cameron Crowe and Roman Coppola as well as his own short film The Borghilde Project in 2009.
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OFER SHAHAR - Israel Production Designer Born in Tel-Aviv, Ofer Shahar designs, creates and constructs sets for the visual media. He studied in Barzin Shoham, a private school for interior design, and is a partner in the Bloomfield Art Initiative. He competed for the best designer on the Israeli reality show The Block and has worked on several shorts. Lipstikka is his second feature film as production designer.
MARC SPECTER - UK Sound Recordist A sound recordist and editor with wide experience of feature film sound recording and post production, Mark Specter specialises in dialogue editing and audio restoration. He has worked as dialogue editor and production sound recordist on a large range of projects, including 35mm fantasy feature Burlesque Fairytales and urban drama Baseline and works mainly at the sound post company Sound Disposition.
ASHER DAHAN - Israel Sound Recordist Asher Dahan studied sound engineering for several years both in college and out. He has worked on numerous TV documentary projects and various TV stations including YES cable, Reality productions and The Sports Channel. He is a member of the Israeli Association of Cinema & TV for Professionals. Lipstikka is his second Israeli feature film.
MONICA MACDONALD - UK Hair and Make-up Monica Macdonald trained at the Christine Blundell Make-Up Academy and has worked on films The Boat That Rocked, directed by Richard Curtis, Centurion, directed by Neil Marshall, Guy Ritchie‟s Sherlock Holmes and Wreckers directed by Dictynna Hood. She also designed a documentary about Bedlam for the History Channel.
ESTI STERN - Israel Hair and Make up Esti Stern studied makeup art at Ilmakiage Studio in Tel-Aviv, and in New York and Miami at Cosmix makeup art school, MAC studio and Elizabeth Arden studio. Her specialties are beauty, fashion, special effects and TV and she has worked on shows including Victoria‟s Secret Fashion Show, Miami Fashion Week and NYC Fashion Week.
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REBECCA GORE - UK Costume Designer Rebecca Gore trained at The London College of Fashion gaining a BA Hons in Costume for the Performing Arts. She has designed costumes for films including The Disappeared, Exam and Shadowline, TV productions Baby Cow and Endemol, and several award-winning shorts including A Fever in the Blood, winner of Best Short Film at the Cannes Film Festival 2002.
ORLY LOMBROZO - Israel Costume Designer Orly Lombrozo studied costumes design at Shenkar‟s in Israel and has worked on television productions, including Hazi Ton Bronza, Mehapsim Ahava and Monkey See, Monkey Do, feature film Cha, Cha, Cha, children‟s play Tsliley and video clip for the song Ir Ktana by Yehudit Ravitz.
VANESSA TAYLOR - Grading and Colourist
Vanessa Taylor is a Digital Intermediate Colourist with 15 years industry experience. Past employers include Animal Logic and Park Road Post. She has worked with directors including Peter Jackson and Roger Donaldson and has graded films including Eichmann and Surviving Evil. Her background in compositing has given her the skills needed to fully take advantage of the DI process when grading.
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About the Cast :
CLARA KHOURY (Lara) Clara Khoury was born in Haifa, the daughter of the well-known Palestinian-Israeli actor Makram J. Khoury. She studied cinema at Tel-Aviv‟s Open University and drama at the Bet- Tsvi School of Drama there. She has worked in a variety of roles on stage including the lead in Antigone by Jean Anouih, The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams and Salome by Oscar Wilde, playing in both Arabic and Hebrew.
A household name in the Palestinian and the Israeli television, her recent work includes the series Parashat Hashavua, writen by Ari Folman (who directed the Oscar-nominated film Waltz with Bashir) the ground-breaking sitcom Arab Labour writen by sayed kashua and the drama Good Intention.
She made her big screen debut in 2002 in the film Rana’s Wedding directed by Hany Abu- Assad (who directed the Oscar-nominated film Paradise Now), which premiered at la Semaine de la Critique at the Cannes Film Festival and went on to win her the Best Actress award for her role as Rana at the Marrakesh International Film Festival.
Two years later she gained international recognition in The Syrian Bride, Directed by Eran Riklis (who directed the film Lemon Tree). In this film she portrayed a young Druze woman from the Golan, who risks losing her family by entering an arranged marriage with a Syrian actor. The film won the coveted Audience Prize at the Locarno Film festival and won many more Prizes at other film festivals around the world.
Khoury currently is staring in Death and The Maiden, a theatre play directed by Juliano Mer Khamis, at Al-Midan Arabic Theatre in Haifa. When not working in front of the camera she teaches drama in the West Bank.
NATALY ATTIYA (Inam) Nataly Attiya was born in Tel-Aviv. She studied classical and modern ballet for ten years at Israel‟s Bat-Dor school of ballet and majored in theatre at Thelma Yellin school of arts.
She is one of Israel's best-known faces having been spotted by a modeling agent as a school girl. Signed up by a top agency she started working as a model during her school vacations under her fashion-designer mother‟s cautious eye. By the age of 15 she was a top model on the catwalks of Paris, Vienna, Milan, Zurich and beyond.
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An international face in the fashion world for five years, she moved to New York but found she missed acting and returned home to Israel where she quickly became a major star. Her television appearances include series like Egoz and Zinzana and she made several films including Yom Yom, directed by the award-winning Amos Gitai (Free Zone and Promised Land).
Attiya took a break of ten years from acting to bring up her sons, changing direction to work in advertising and finance. But once again she missed working as an actor and returned to drama, starring in The Days of Love (Zipi) and Kavod (Gabi), Three Mothers, performing in both Arabic and French under the direction of Dina Riclis and on stage at the Givatime Theatre in Movetal Nolad under the direction of Oded Kotler.
DANIEL CALTAGIRONE (Michael) Daniel Caltagirone was born in London and spent part of his childhood in New York. He trained at The Guildhall School of Music and Drama although he says that acting was not his first choice of career having been groomed for a life in the military at St Ignatius College for Boys in London. On the verge of going to Sandhurst Military Academy he was spotted in a bar in London's Covent Garden by a theatre director who asked him to read for a role as the devil in a fringe production of God, the Devil and an Angel.
Although he has worked on stage throughout his career, Caltagirone has concentrated mainly on film and television. His television roles include the lead, Moon, in Lock, Stock, The Fixer (Gideon Stone), the ensemble hit series Friends, The Passion (Eban), Above Suspicion (DS Paul Barolli), The Tudors (Treviso) and most recently The Time Machine for NBC TV playing Commander Hoyle.
Films he has starred in include Tomb Raider II: Lara Croft and the Cradle of Life (Nicholas), The Beach (Unhygenix), The Four Feathers (Gustave), the cult film The Fall (Sinclair/Governor Odious) and The Pianist (the resistance fighter, Majorek).
MORAN ROSENBLATT (Young Inam) Moran Rosenblat graduated from the acting school of Haderah in Tel-Aviv and also studied acting with Ruti Deichs. She‟s acted in several short films for the Camera Obscura Film School in Tel-Aviv, and various productions at the Karov Theatre. Lipstikka is her first feature film.
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ZIV WEINER (Young Lara) Ziv Weiner is currently taking an acting course in her high school and had no previous experience in acting before working on Lipstikka. She comes from the city of Ramat Hasharon in central Israel, and is an avid Girl Scout.
GAL LEV (Gadi) Lev is a graduate of Nissan Nativ acting studio and his feature film credits include Htganvut Yehidim and Kartonim & Naylonim. He has also performed in TV dramas including the prime time daily series Neshot Hatayasim and The Island 3, Raash, a live music program, Hamakom and Internal Investigation.
OFER HAYOUN (Boaz) Hayoun studied acting at Haderech School for Theatre and at Ruti Deiches. His film performances include the lead role in the film Zion and his Brother directed by Eran Merav and Testimony directed by Shlomi Elkabetz.
TALIESIN KNIGHT (James Johnson) Taliesin Knight, was seven years old when he shot Lipstikka. He comes from Brighton in Sussex and is a pupil at Shana Goldman Stage School and attends the Lewes New School.
His acting career began at the age of four months as "baby-girl" in Vincent in Brixton at the National Theatre followed by "baby-boy" in The People are Friendly at The Royal Court Theatre two months later. Other professional credits include Foyle’s War, and commercials for British Airways & UKTV Food. His most recent role was as Indian Boy in the 2009 Glyndebourne production of Purcell's The Fairy Queen directed by Jonathan Kent.
NATASHA WILLIAMS (Nurse Yolanda) Probably best known for her role as PC Delia French in the ITV series The Bill, Natasha Williams‟ credits include the new Dr Who series, Doctors, Holby City, Eastenders, The Last Detective and Nighty Night.
DAVID LOUGHLIN (the Dishwasher Repairman) Originally from Dublin, Ireland, Loughlin moved to London in 2007 to further pursue his career in acting. He has been acting professionally since the age of 10 and trained at the Gaiety School of Acting and Visions Drama School and Stagecraft Academy.
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CAST
Lara Clara Khoury
Inam Nataly Attiya
Michael Daniel Caltagirone
Young Inam Moran Rosenblatt
Young Lara Ziv Weiner
Gadi Gal Lev
Boaz Ofer Hayoun
James Taliesin Knight
Young Inam's Mother Jullate Kahwage
Young Lara's Mother Amal Reihan-Abu Ramadan
Young Lara's Father Ibrahim Abu-Zeid
Ashraf Adam Abu-Razek
Salim Hamudi Abu-Razek
Jamil Kosta Fasho
James' School Teacher Charlotte McDougall
Dishwasher Repairman David Loughlin
Nurse Yolanda Natasha Williams
Irish Man Wuzza Conlon
Aaron Nigel Betts
Bob Conor Malone
Ruth Olivia Poulet
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CREW
Writer/Director Jonathan Sagall
Producers Guy Allon & Jonathan Sagall
Executive Producers John Reiss & David Willing
Associate Producer David Molyneux
Cinematography Andreas Thalhammer & Xiaosu Han
Editor Yuval Netter
Sound Designer Roland Heap
Music Jody Jenkins
Production Designer UK Myles Grimsdale
Production Designer Israel Ofer Shahar
Casting UK Dan Hubbard
Casting Israel Moran Marsiano
UK Unit:
Unit Production Manager Hannah Judah
1st Assistant Director James Nunn
Location Manager Martin Walker
Script Supervisor/Continuity Lara Shahd Zoabi
Production Sound Mixer Marc Specter
Gaffer Jon Ball
Key Grip Grace Donaldson
Costume Designer Rebecca Gore
Makeup & Hair Designer Monica Macdonald
Israel Unit:
Line Producer Kfir Weiss
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Production Manager Ofer Biton-Ligad
Legal Advisor Yaron Grofman, Tadmor & Co, Tel-Aviv.
1st Assistant Director Doron Ofer
Script Supervisor/Continuity Lara Shahd Zoabi
Dialog Coach Adi Adwan
Production Sound Mixer Asher Dahan
Production Sound Mixer Moti Hefetz
Gaffer Lee Klein
Gaffer Netta Meyer
Costume Supervisor Orli Lombrozo
Makeup Artist Esti Stern
Hair Stylist Ilan Guri
Location Manager Aviv Zidkiya
@ All Rights Reserved to Obelis Productions.
Contact: Jonathan Sagall Israel Mobile Phone: +972-54-309-1900 UK Mobile Phone: +44-7746-230-594 E-mail: [email protected]
Guy Allon Mobile Phone: +44-7816-414-552 E-mail: [email protected]
Check our website at: http://www.lipstikka-themovie.com
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