Where did Eden come from?

It is an adaptation of a story by Arthur Miller, called “Homely Girl: A Life.” Originaly, I was contacted by the French production company Balenciaga. Then I went and met with Arthur in New York. When we met, Arthur asked to view some works, and they projected Kadosh. Not long after, he saw Kippur. I think both films touched him. He said that he was interested in having some sort of creative exchange with me. I agreed. But quite early on, I told Arthur that I would need to find an angle to relate to the story and situate it in the universe I feel close to.

So you transposed the story from New York City to British Mandate era Palestine.

I think that there were some elements in the story that lend themselves to be situated elsewhere. The original story is about a woman and her relations with several men: her father, who is a liberal Jew in New York; her husband, who is an engaged Communist; her brother, who is a Capitalist; and a lover, named Kalkofsky, who is an émigré from Europe. She has to compose a very nuanced kind of character between these different persons. This I took as one dimension of the story. At the same time, History with a big "H" is changing and, to some extent, destroying the different relationships. When her husband goes back to the War, she has a romantic exchange with this Kalkofsky, and when her husband comes back he is transformed. Meanwhile, the political stage is constantly changing. I felt it would be interesting to examine a similar situation in Palestine at the time. In brackets, let me say that Palestine at the time is a society that is also composed of groups of immigrants. They are all, in some ways, strangers to this country. If they come from Europe or North America they try to create some sort of contact with the country while keeping themselves communities unto themselves.

But to go back to your question, since the period of the British Mandate interests me a lot, I thought that I could transpose the Miller story into this context and look at the question of intimacy on one hand, and these big historical events at the same time.

What interests you so much about the British Mandate era? It's a period that you have also explored in other films, perhaps most profoundly in Berlin Jerusalem.

I think that, in a strange way, we are again nearing the period of the British Mandate in the Holy Land. That was a very desperate period, because of everything going on in Europe, and also because of the beginning of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But the conflict is not between two states; it is between communities. And I think the Middle East now seems to be degenerating into an inter-communal kind of struggle. Sometimes, it helps to look at another period to have some inspiration for the present, and that is what I tried to do here.

Let's talk about Wadi: Grand Canyon. This is the third installment in a documentary series you have made over ten year intervals, dealing with Arabs and Jews living together in a valley in Haifa.

Wadi is a film that I did first in 1981, and then again in 1991, and then again this year, 2001. I think this suggests something that documentary can offer that fiction cannot. You go to a site, and you see the transformations over a period of time, with the aging of people, the changes in their relationships, and so on. In this film, each layer tells you something about this country. I consider Israel a kind of ongoing archeological dig, in which you always have layers and transformations being recycled. I think Wadi presents an effective microcosm in which I can look at these transformations.

In this new chapter, there is the addition of a big shopping mall modeled on American shopping centers. This mall is called "Grand Canyon." And, as we know, "wadi" means "valley." So the film deals with the relations between an imported architecture and consumption culture onto an authentic valley, and the way this culture that represents the global economy will eventually crush the fragile community in the Wadi.

In different layers, this is a story of Israelis and Palestinians, of people from Eastern Europe and North Africa, with many ingredients of different stories transformed every ten years. This may be the last time I will be able to film Wadi because of the total destruction of the society.

What is your own personal reaction to this?

I think it's a really dramatic development. In the present state, some of the questions that underlie it are universal. They're not particular to Israel. They are questions of the urban destruction of little, small communities, in this case of a sort of small Israeli quarter, by the professional architecture and the national structures. Some elements are very local, with the particularities of relations of couples of mixed origins in fragmented stories. It's another very particular place being homogenized into the mesh of world culture.

You are, of course, a very prolific filmmaker. Tell us about some of your upcoming projects.

I'm preparing a project about the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, particularly the battle of a small citadel called Latrun. The working title is Midnight Convoy. It deals with immigrants who arrive late one afternoon and go into battle the very next day. There is a sort of temporal unity to the story, within 24 hours. It will be composed from several big chapters. Again, I think the period of the British Mandate can tell us a lot about the origin of what we see now in the Middle East. This project is a big challenge, and I look forward to it.

Second Part