Private Project

39


Keren is a social worker in the welfare department in Haifa. The corridor is packed with struggling mothers, abused woman and children at risk and everyone is suffering. But today it’s Keren’s 40th birthday and she is the one who needs comforting. She is waiting for a phone call from the man she loves, but he doesn’t call her, and everything falls apart.

  • Anat Schwartz
    Director
    La Promise
  • Anat Schwartz
    Writer
    La Promise
  • Dan Sella
    Producer
  • Anat Schwartz
    Producer
    La Promise
  • Maya Gasner
    Key Cast
    "Keren"
  • Lucy Dubinchik
    Key Cast
    "Alice"
  • Tal Brener
    Key Cast
    "Woman in Corridor"
  • Alma Dubinchik
    Key Cast
    "Alma"
  • Project Type:
    Short, Student
  • Runtime:
    14 minutes 42 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    November 1, 2020
  • Production Budget:
    8,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    Israel
  • Country of Filming:
    Israel
  • Language:
    Hebrew
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    1.77
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    Yes - Tisch Film & TV school, Tel Aviv University
  • Digital Cinema Package:
    Unavailable
Director Biography - Anat Schwartz

Anat Schwartz
Director, Screenwriter.
Born in Haifa in 1978.

Anat graduated (with Honors) from The Sam Spiegel Film and Television School in Jerusalem and La Femis (Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Métiers de l’Image et du Son) in Paris, France. Anat received her BA (cum laude) in Philosophy and Literature from the Tel Aviv University.
In 2018, Anat began studying for an MFA degree at the Tisch Film School in Tel Aviv University.

“La Promise” (2017) Anat’s documentary serie (3 episodes) ,which she directed, cinematograph and co-produce, was screen at Doc-Aviv Film Festival in 2017 and was screened on the YesDocu channel and received both critical and audience acclaim.

"39", Anat's first short fiction film, was premiered at the Torino Film Festival, Italy in 2020.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

How does a parent feel when his or her child ignores them when they stand waiting outside school? How does a parent feel seeing his or her child on the street, arm covered in cast, not knowing that the child injured. A bereaved parent to a living child. These are the thoughts that go through the mind of Keren, my heroine, a social worker in the family. Keren is a women for whom other people's pain is always greater than hers. She is always busy saving others, when there is nobody to save her. As other people rely on her more and more, she becomes weaker. At work, she barely finds the time to drink coffee. But at night, alone in her quite apartment, nobody takes care of her.
Keren has a lot me in her. I divorced when my son was 18 months old. I feared that my son will be forced to pick a side, empathise with his father and lose touch with me. This fear was perplexing. When I began my research, I realised that this phenomenon has a name - parental alienation. Ten percent of divorced parents encounter it and social services do not know how to deal with it. It is common in families of all classes. When a child builds a wall in front of his or her parent, it would require years to remove it.
For the past six years, I have directed a documentary serie, La Promise (2017). In an observational style, severe realism, almost without interviews. I directed my characters like "Non-Actors" with the materials from their lives, with their baggage and dramas. This observation style, and the concept of real time in film, is a great influence on me. Each scene is filmed in one Shot, hand held camera from the perspective of Keren , closed frames that give the feeling that what Keren does not see, remains outside the frame and only sounds get in and surprises her and us.