22 Established 1961 Lifestyle Music & Movies Thursday, January 30, 2020 fter cementing his reputation as a top woes, which has seen him charged in corrup- lence which culminated in the 2014 war Treatment”. The show has helped opened Aproducer in the US, Israel’s Hagai Levi tion cases. “Our Boys” portrays the events between the Israeli military and Gaza mili- doors for other Israeli production in has sparked controversy back home surrounding the death of Mohammed Abu tants that devastated the Palestinian enclave. Hollywood and has been adapted into multi- with his latest TV series “Our Boys”. Sitting Khdeir, whose body was found in a forest in Filmed in Arabic and Hebrew, Levi says “Our ple languages. But it was “The Affair”-co- in a Tel Aviv cafe, Levi takes a drag from his west Jerusalem. The teen had been burned Boys” demonstrates that “reality is complex”. created with Sarah Treem-which cemented e-cigarette. “I write here,” says the 56-year- alive. “There are victims on both sides,” he adds. his reputation as a leading drama producer. old, surrounded by warm-coloured walls and Three Jewish extremists admitted to the “It’s not about the good and the bad.” The series was released in 2014 for the low lighting. Following his triumph in the murder, describing the July 2014 attack as Showtime network and won acclaim for its United States with “The Affair”, which picked revenge for the earlier abduction and killing Kibbutz cinema unusual storytelling style, portraying an up a Golden Globe for best television series of three Israeli teenagers by alleged Hamas Born in the religious kibbutz of Sha’alvim, event repeatedly from the perspectives of in 2015, Levi says he felt compelled to tell members in the occupied West Bank. The central Israel, Levi discovered film at 16, different characters. “Couples and their stories about events closer to home. “Our prime minister criticized the series for focus- when he worked as a projectionist at the dilemmas especially interest me,” says Levi, Boys”, written for HBO with Tawfik Abu Wael ing on the “shocking but rare” killing of a community’s small cinema. After graduating who is also working on an adaptation of and Joseph Cedar, is based on the real-life Palestinian boy and showing only a few min- Israeli screenwriter Hagai Levi poses for a picture from Tel Aviv University, he became a cinema Ingmar Bergman’s 1970s series “Scenes abduction and murder of a 16-year-old utes of archive footage about the murder of during an interview with AFP in the Mediterranean critic before starting his career in Israeli tele- from a Marriage”. The screenwriter is also Palestinian boy. the three Israelis. coastal city of Tel Aviv. — AFP vision. At the end of the 1990s, he produced working on a film about the intimate diaries Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Levi defends “Our Boys”, which he says his first series, “Short Stories About Love”, of a Holocaust victim. Etty Hillesum, a Netanyahu urged a boycott of the drama shows how the Israeli authorities did all they than 200 Israelis rampaging through before dedicating himself to writing and Dutch Jew, left a detailed account of her life over its portrayal of the events leading up to could to find and convict Abu Khdeir’s killers. Jerusalem after their burial, dragging people directing soap operas. before being killed at the Auschwitz death the 2014 Gaza war. The series tarnishes the “But for that, you need to wait for the third out of cars and chanting “Death to Arabs.” “I He gradually distanced himself from reli- camp, which was liberated 75 years ago image of Israel, he wrote on Facebook, episode,” he adds. The killing of 16-year-olds don’t think that these people really wanted to gion and became interested in psychoanaly- this month. — AFP accusing it of being anti-Semitic. Netanyahu Naftali Frenkel and Gilad Shaer, and 19-year- kill Arabs,” says Levi. sis, creating the Israeli drama “Betipul”, similarly called for a boycott of Channel 12 old Eyal Yifrach, shocked the country and But words “can be taken literally by peo- about a psychologist. Its success sparked and its operator Keshet, also a target of the prompted a national outpouring of emotion. ple who are psychologically unstable,” he Levi’s first project with HBO in 2008, when premier’s ire for its coverage of his legal Calls for revenge also followed, with more adds. The killings were part of a cycle of vio- he worked on the American adaptation, “In Javier Bardem aif Ali Khan, bonafide Bollywood Bollywood ‘renaissance’ Sroyalty and star of Netflix hit The first big name from Bollywood to “Sacred Games”, says India’s mas- embrace digital entertainment, Khan said sive film industry does not need interna- the ambition displayed by Netflix and oth- tional audiences to thrive. But that may not ers has the potential to upend the status be a good thing, he cautions. The 49-year- quo, even in movie-mad India. “Historically old actor, whose latest film “Jawaani the money has been in the big screen, at Jaaneman” (“Youthful Lover”) is out on least in India,” he said, “so a lot of main- Friday, has starred in multiple blockbusters stream actors... would think twice before over the years, from “Dil Chahta Hai” doing television”. But streaming services (“The Heart Desires”) in 2001 to “Tanhaji”, are “challenging that notion”, he said, released earlier this month. while also offering actors greater oppor- Yet even as foreign films-like South tunities and contributing to a “renais- In this file photo Demonstrators hold banners reading “I accuse: Polanski Rapist” during a protest Korean hit “Parasite”-find viewers and sance” in the industry. against French-Polish film director Roman Polanski outside the “Champo” cinema hall in Paris. awards overseas, Bollywood has remained For his part, he has played everything new international treaty giving new rights to film on the fringes of global entertainment, from a commitment-shy chef in the 2005 Aand television actors will come into force in April, content to target India’s 1.3 billion popula- hit “Salaam Namaste” to a murderous the UN said Tuesday, in a development hailed by tion and millions of others from the dias- drifter in the 2006 black comedy “Being Spanish screen star Javier Bardem as “an act of justice”. pora. “The thing about our culture... is that Cyrus” to a Shakespearean villain in The Beijing Treaty on Audiovisual Performances was we don’t really need verification, valida- “Omkara”, an Indian adaptation of adopted in 2012, but is only coming into force now that the tion, appreciation from an outside culture,” “Othello”. Describing today’s Bollywood minimum required number of 30 countries have ratified it. Khan told AFP in Mumbai. as a “big umbrella” that accommodates “The Beijing Treaty is the most important thing that has oman Polanski’s new film “An Officer (Roman Polanski), to be in the same room art-house cinema, crowd-pleasing happened to actors since the invention of cinema,” Bardem Rand a Spy” topped the list of nomi- together for a big celebration of film.” “masala” musicals, low-key comedies and said in a video distributed alongside the announcement by nations yesterday for the “French Haenel-who was nominated for best even zombie movies, Khan said the variety the UN’s World Intellectual Property Organization Oscars” sparking fury from feminists. The actress for her performance in “Portrait of helps him “feel sane”. “There’s something (WIPO). The treaty gives performers rights over the controversial director has been wanted in a Lady on Fire”-touched a nerve last year always to be said for something that chal- reproduction, distribution and rental of their audiovisual the US for the statutory rape of a 13-year- by telling how she was sexually harassed lenges you mentally or makes you feel that performances, which could mean they are able to earn old girl since 1978 and is persona non gra- from the age of 12 on her first film. French you are going into some territory that is more money. ta in Hollywood. His period drama about director Christophe Ruggia was charged interesting... I would like to mix it up as It updates previous multilateral provisions agreed in the Dreyfus affair, which rocked France at with sexual assault on a minor earlier this much as possible.” 1961 for the digital era and extends to actors some of the the turn of the 20th century, is in line for 12 month. same protections enjoyed by musicians, giving them more Cesars, the French equivalent of the Risky business power to decide how their performances are used. Spanish Oscars. Cinemas picketed His latest movie is an out-and-out star Bardem said it would allow actors to “participate fair- The head of the French film academy Polanski, 86, won both best director and entertainer, but even here, Khan has ly in the use of our audiovisual work” and would give per- Alain Terzian said it “should not take moral the critics’ prize at the Venice film festival departed from the norm by playing father formers “more dignified lives”. “It puts an end to a historic positions” about giving awards. But their in August for “An Officer and a Spy”, which to a 21-year-old woman in an industry injustice which has prevented actors from receiving the choice was swifty condemned by feminists has been a big hit at the French box office where leading men in their fifties routinely basic rights long enjoyed by musicians and other creators. and some film critics. “If rape was an art, despite a wave of protests.