Fire Birds

"A mensch tracht, un got lacht" - "A man plans and god laughs" - a well known Yiddish proverb.
The idea for the movie has been conjuring within me for a decade now and is primarily based on two experiences: the suspenseful aspect was a development and elaboration of a newspaper article I saw roughly 15 years ago about a beggar who washed ashore on the banks of some river in Russia. He had no identification and it was impossible to continue the investigation. After some time, it was discovered that this beggar, in order to survive, would read the obituaries on a daily basis and inconspicuously sneak into the wakes of the deceased. The second experience is the Polish family in which I was raised - the characters which comprise it, the humor, the poison, the wisdom, solitude and sadness.
The film operates on two narrative levels, and therein the great challenge which lay before me as a director - Amnon's story is the framework, the plot of a detective in search of the solution to the mystery. This is a thrilling story, which I chose to direct in accordance with the genre, in respect to the character development, acting style, cinematography and all other aspects of the film medium. The story of Amikam and the holocaust-survivor widows is a more grotesque, more dynamic narrative. As the characters approach the final moments of their lives, I sought to reciprocally intensify their desire to live by means of stronger hues and movements.
The main challenge was to utilize these small truths, which arise from the story - the desire to identify with a larger group, the desire to relive through a time long gone - and to build around them, in an elegant fashion, a suspenseful and ostensibly generic narrative.