kissing the wall

Yoni and Emily, two perfect strangers, spend a once-in-a-lifetime evening together, on a passionate and unforgettable night drive. A drive that could change their lives forever.

  • Yehuda Udi persi
    Director
  • Yehuda Udi persi
    Writer
  • Encore films
    Producer
  • Yehuda Udi persi
    Key Cast
    "Yoni"
    Chazarot, Laavor et HaKir, room 514, Hatuna MeNiyar...
  • Yuval Yuval Scharf
    Key Cast
    "Emily"
    Malkat HaYofi shel Yerushalayim
  • Project Title (Original Language):
    לנשק את הקיר
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Completion Date:
    January 1, 2023
  • Production Budget:
    30,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    Israel
  • Country of Filming:
    Israel
  • Language:
    Hebrew
  • Shooting Format:
    digital - Mini alexa
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Odense International Film Festival 2023
    Odense
    Denmark
    August 30, 2023
    official selection
  • Jerusalem film festival 2023.
    Jerusalem
    Israel
    July 16, 2023
    israeli primiere
    Official selection
  • Nominated for the Best Short Film Award - Israeli Academy Awards 2023.
    Tel - aviv
    Israel
    July 1, 2023
    Nominated for the Best Short Film Award
    Nominated for the Best Short Film Award
  • official selection - Boca International Jewish Film Festival 2024
    boca raton
    United States
    October 8, 2024
Director Biography - Yehuda Udi persi

Soon after completing his mandatory army service as an officer in the Israeli navy, Udi got accepted to one of Israel's prestigious acting schools - landing his first role as a lead actor in the independent feature film "ROOM 514" (winner special mention Tribeca film festival). For this film Udi was also nominated for best actor.

Since then, Udi established himself in the Israeli film industry and appeared in more than 20 Israeli films and TV shows, including: 10% my child (palm springs)., rehearsals (4 awards Israeli academy), 'The Wedding plan', '15 Years', '10 Percent my child', 'Wedding doll', 'Halayla Haze' and more.

He has won awards for the Best Actor award for his role in the films '15 Years'.

In addition to be an accomplished actor, Udi also became a sought-after acting coach and worked with renowned actors in the Israeli industry. Udi's love to acting and coaching led him to fulfill a long-time passion - writing, directing and acting in his first short film "kissing the wall", which had its Israeli premiere at the 2023 Jerusalem Film Festival and will have its world premiere at the Odense International Film Festival 2023. Kissing the wall is also nominated to the 2023 Israeli academy award - for best short movie - israeli oscar.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

Unfortunately, I am a man who can easily be envied.

On the page, in the checklist of life, I have everything:
I looks good with lots of friends, combat service in the army, a good job, a stunning wife, three children, a garden and a dog that refuses to lie in it.
Seemingly a sparkling and eye-popping pastoral image. But inside... right in the middle of the chest, inside something is dead.

I have, unfortunately, an endless attempt to compensate for an abysmal lack. There is a chronic, unbearable pain, which is always missing something in me. Mainly meaning and belonging. Even if on the surface everything looks "perfect" - the feeling of being "invisible" creates an emotional deprivation and immense loneliness within which I struggle alone to put together a kind of "avatar" with missing parts that lead me to anxiety, depression, rage and incessant disturbing thoughts.

In her groundbreaking book "The Drama of the Gifted Child", Alice Miller states:
"It is sometimes amazing to find out how much the inner child, at any age of the adult, can be "waiting" for a parent to smile and be satisfied. Maybe for life. The disorder of overly sensitive children sometimes suppresses the possibility of expressing themselves and their "egoistic" needs.
These children develop a "false self", an idealization of their image, to adapt themselves to the views and fall into depression when they do not actually or subjectively succeed in being the image in the mirror."

This is my life story.

This is also the story of Yoni and Amelie, the protagonists of the film.
I wanted to tell, perhaps for the first time on the screen, about a "perfect" man who lives in an unspeakable existential void. He desperately needs to see himself in another, to be approved, to feel something.
For her it is seen as a fantasy. She also knows it - she's funny, looks like a dream and everything seems to be "easy" for her. But she is childish, without limits, with a huge need for a family, an anchor.

Each has what the other needs. You are what the second lacks. And maybe they have a way, because of the shared deprivation and pain, to be together... without being together.

kissing the wall.