This story begins in a photo that was hidden away for some eighty years. For a frozen moment the photo exposed the joy of my grandparents' wedding in 1926 in Berlin. A moment later, everything will turn upside down.
This is a story about love, a love story that crosses borders, a love story between a woman and two men, a love story between a woman and the theatre, between a woman and the Land of Israel, about a mother's love for her children and the price of all these loves.
Awards
- Best Author's Approach Award – TV Fest Bar, Montenegro, 2014
Festivals
- TV Bar International Film Festival, Montenegro, 2014
- Lichtwerk Kino, Bielefeld, Germany, 2014
- Berlin Jewish Film Festival, Germany, 2014
- Haifa International Film Festival – Official Competition, 2013
Additional info
Gallery
film poster
Saga of a Photo is at once a personal biography (at times insular and moody) and a broader, more public depiction of the nascence of Israel’s National Theater and Film Industry. Director Mooli Landesman’s grandmother was Margot Klausner, an important figure in the foundation of Israel’s Habimah National Theater and the undeniable first lady of the Israeli Film Industry – with her studio (the first in Israel) Herzliyah built in 1949.
Using a mix of family photos, home movies, archival film footage, interviews with her mother and uncle as well as dramatic re-enactments based on Margot’s diaries – Landesman presents a rich and complex telling of Margot’s early life of privilege in Europe, her introduction to Palestine and the Yishuv, and resulting life’s work in helping articulate a National arts and cultural identity for Israel via theater and film. The archival footage and Margot’s personal narrative provide useful glimpses of Berlin prior to Nazi occupation, 1920’s Palestine and Israel as well as a unique perspective of the formation of the Habima National Theater and Herzliyah Studio. For the entire review by EMRO, check: http://emro.lib.buffalo.edu/emro/emroDetail.asp?Number=5483
SAGA OF A PHOTO, directed by Mooly Landesman, tells the fascinating life story of Margot Klausner -- a woman of great courage and vision, who is credited with being among the founders of the Habimah National Theater in the 1930s and responsible for the building of the first film studio in 1949. Based on her diary entries, family photos, home movies, personal letters, and using dramatic re-enactments, her granddaughter tells the story of her life in this extraordinary documentary film.
For the entire review by Amy Kronish, check: http://israelfilm.blogspot.co.il/search/label/--Saga%20of%20a%20Photo