Atomic Falafel a Film by Dror Shaul
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ATOMIC FALAFEL A FILM BY DROR SHAUL PRESS KIT LOGLINE Two girls from nuclear towns in Israel and Iran spill their countries most valuable secrets on Facebook while trying to prevent a nuclear crisis. SYNOPSIS It’s hard enough to be a teenager, working in the family Falafel food truck with her mother, who’s in the ninth year of grieving the loss of her husband. But Nofar Azrian, 15, sells falafel to soldiers perpetually ready for war, and her hometown is the site of Israel’s secret nuclear weapons program. When a German international atomic inspector (Oliver Hahn, "Oli") visits, the Israeli military sees a threat to national security, but Nofar sees a chance for her mother to fall in love again. Israel’s top brass brings its full weight to bear on the relationship, humiliating Nofar to get her to back down – but they’ve never taken on a fifteen year-old girl before. With her fast- 1 talking hacker boyfriend, Meron, she turns the tables on the Israeli military, by stealing the country’s most valuable military secrets. As if that weren’t bad enough, Nofar’s best Facebook friend lives in Natanz, Iran, target number one for Israel. How Nofar tries to save her friend, how her mom falls in love, and how the Middle East falls apart - is the thrilling climax of Atomic Falafel. DIRECTOR’S NOTES I was born in Kibbutz Kissufim in southern Israel, to a Yemenite mother and an American father. When I was five years old, I remember standing with my mother near the Kibbutz fence, looking at the sunset over the Dir El Balach sea shore, just two kilometers away. "Wat's that over there?" I asked and my mother said that "in Dir El Balach our Arab neighbors live". "If they are our neighbors, how come we need a fence?" I asked. Then my mother explained what happened before I was born, including the wars and terror attacks. "So all the Arabs are bad?" I asked. My mother took a deep breath and said "There is no connection between Jews or Arabs and good or bad. There are good and bad Jews exactly like there are good and bad Arabs". So easy and clear, she explained and smiled at me. I still remember today the calm feeling that was spread inside me from realizing that simple insight- that right beyond the fence, there are people exactly like me, who don’t have any wish to hurt me. It made so much sense- this might have been the purest essence of truth that my mother and the Kibbutz gave me- the equality of human beings, wherever and whoever they are. A few decades later, I called an Iranian director friend to congratulate her for winning an award in an important international festival. "Who would have thought", she shouted happily, "Israel and Iran won the first prizes! Maybe someday we'll even make films together!" At that time I was developing a story which took place in a nuclear town in southern Israel in the last days before a war. The conversation with the Iranian director inspired me to open the story to a similar nuclear town in Iran and create the first Israeli – Iranian co production in the history. I was convinced it would be fast and easy to finance. It wasn’t. Five and a half years later: during those years, the project had its ups and downs. Getting the finance from Israel took time. The world was hesitating and finding Iranian partners was also a long and slow process. Actors came in and dropped out, producers joined and disappeared, and even when an Iranian producer had agreed to jump on board and shoot some material in Iran for us – the communication with him was difficult until it finally died. Five and a half years after that night call to the Iranian director, Atomic Falafel is finally ready. Produced by Israel, Germany, New Zealand (and involving Iranians, even if off-the- record), the film conveys the message that the technological revolution of the internet and 2 social networks has succeeded in crossing the black curtain imposed by dark regimes to isolated their citizens. Teenagers, no matter where they are from, have more in common today than ever. They dress the same, listen to the same music and aren’t really interested in wars. I hope that the sane side of Israel and of the world will prevail over the irresponsible one; and that my little boy, who was born two weeks after the shoot, will earn a safe future and home. Dror Shaul. DROR SHAUL – DIRECTOR, SCRIPTWRITER & PRODUCER Dror Shaul is a film writer, director, producer residing in Tel Aviv-Israel. In 1999 he wrote and directed his first short film Operation Grandma (50 minutes, original title: "Mivtsa Savta"), which won the Israeli Academy Award, was a final nominee for the Banff Rockie Award in 2000 in Canada, and is considered as one of Israel's best cult films. His first feature film Sima Vaknin, A Witch, was released in July 2003. In 2003 Dror participated in the Sundance Directors and Screenwriters Labs with Sweet Mud. The film was released in September 2006 and won 4 Israeli Academy Awards including Best Film. Sweet Mud premiered in the Toronto IFF and participated in Pusan IFF. The film won: The Sundance IFF Grand Jury Award in the World Cinema Competition 2007 The Crystal Bear in Berlin IFF 2007 The Audience Award in Miami IFF 2007 The Bermuda IFF 2007 The Serbia IFF 2007 The Croatia IFF 2007 The Prix Jeune Public and Prix Nova in Montpellier IFF 2007. Dror has worked on several nationally and internationally recognized commercial campaigns and won many local and international awards like Israel's equivalent of the Clio Award, the New York Festival's Global Award and the International Festival of Commercial Films in Rome. Work Samples: drorshaul.com vimeo.com/user21574282/videos youtube.com/user/DashCham/feed?activity_view=3 3 MAIN CREDITS Nofar: Michelle Treves CAST Mimi Azrian: Mali Levi Gershon Oliver Hann: Alexander Fehling Joshua: Will Robertson Haim Shai: Shai Avivi Meron: Idan Carmeli Sharareh: Tara Melter Avihu: Yossi Marshak Citizen 60 : Jonathan Cherchi Citizen K: Zohar Strauss Sharareh's Father: Arash Sarhaddi Grandmother: Sima Seyed Head of RVP: Otana Mirza Teacher: Ami Smolarchik Director & Screenwriter: Dror Shaul CREW Producers: Chilik Michaeli ▪ Avraham Pirchi ▪ Tami Leon ▪ Amir Feingold ▪ Dror Shaul ▪ Moshe Edery ▪ Leon Edery ▪ Andro Steinborn ▪ Skady Lis ▪ Minu Barati ▪ Matthew Metcalfe Director of Photography: Sebastian Edschmid Editor: Tom Eagles Composer: Joel Haines Composer of Iranian Music: Bahar Henschel Editor Tom Eagles Art Director: Diana Habig Production Designers: Yoram Shayer | Yasmin Khalifa Costume Designers: Chen Gilad | Peri de Braganca Sound Designer: Chris Sinclair Sound Recordists Yahav Shemesh | Christoph Schilling Make-up & Hair: Ziv Katanov | Isabelle-Sophie Beyer Line Producer Amir Feingold 1st Assistant Director: Doron Ofer Casting: Limor Shmila | Uwe Bünker Produced by: UCM ▪ Amir Feingold ▪ Dash Ham ▪ United King Films ▪ Arden Film ▪ Jooyaa Filmproduktion ▪ Getaway Pictures ▪ General Film Corporation The film was produced with the participation of: Israel Film Fund ▪ The Ministry of Culture and Sports, The Israel Film Council ▪ Filmstiftung Nordrhein- Westfalen ▪ Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg ▪ Deutscher Filmförderfonds DFFF ▪ Norddeutscher Rundfunk ▪ ARTE ▪ New Zealand Film Commission ▪ Images & Sound Limited ▪ YES This film was produced with the support of the Israel Fund for Film Production 4 CAST MICHELLE TREVES (Nofar) Michelle was born in Israel in 1998. She is the eldest of three children. Her hobbies are painting and sewing. In the past she used to fence, and achieved 2nd place in Israel's Fencing championship of 2010 for her age group. She is an eleventh grade student at the Katzanelson High School of Kfar Saba, majoring in theater and physics. Television: 2004 - "Amalya" in a TV 15 episode series "Every Other Saturday", written by Ofer Knispel and directed by Avi Cohen Theater: A member of "Bimat Hanoar Kfar Saba" for the past 12 years 2013 - "Lighthouse" played in "Akko Festival", directed by Eilat Mansini. Cinema: 2014 - "Atomic Falafel" directed by Dror Shaul 2010 - "The Fifth Heaven" directed by Dina Zvi-Riklis 2009 - "My Australia" directed by Ami Drozd Michelle also participated in several student films. MALI LEVI GERSHON (Mimi) Mali is an Israeli Actress. In the last two years Mali acted in several prominent roles in the movies "Zinuck be alia" "childhood pictures" "suicide" "Phoenix" "good boy Jerusalem" and in the TV Series "The Office" "The suspect" "Amamiot" "Naors Friends" "Srugim" "Mesudarim" and "dolls" Her big break was in the in her roles she played in the Israeli remake of the known TV series "The Office" where she was nominated twice in for Academy Awards Best Actress. Mali played in the theater plays "Annie" and in "All Man Are The Same" by Act2 theater that won best play award in Haifa Festival. ALEXANDER FEHLING (Oliver Hann) ALEXANDER FEHLING was born 1981 in Berlin and attended Ernst Busch drama school from 2003 until 2007. He performed on stage of the Maxim Gorki Theater Berlin, the Berliner Ensemble, the bat Berlin, the Deutsches Theaters Berlin, the Berliner Sophiensäle and the Theaters Neumarkt, Zurich. His first feature film was Robert Thalheim’s highly acclaimed AM ENDE KOMMEN TOURISTEN. 2008 Fehling played in Hans-Christian Schmids drama STURM and in Frieder Wittich’s comedy 13 SEMESTER, his part in Quentin Tarantinos INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS got him international attention. For his lead in GOETHE! (2009; director: Philipp Stölzl) Fehling was nominated for the German Film Award. 2011 Fehling was selected as one of the „Shooting Stars“ during Berlin 5 Film Festival, also his film WER WENN NICHT WIR directed by Andres Veiel showed on the festival.