Curtain Call

Elinor Nechemya, Sivan Gal Boico

Producers

Aurit Zamir, Yoav Roeh

Lab Edition

2024

Production

Gum Films LTD

Country

Israel

SYNOPSIS

Dekel, a fringe director in her mid-thirties, gets a once-in-a- lifetime opportunity- to direct a new cabaret at a renowned repertory theater. Everything runs smoothly until her estranged father is released from jail earlier than expected, and messages her that he is coming to the premiere. Horrified by his unwelcomed reappearance in her life, Dekel confronts him, hoping to finally put this painful chapter of her life behind. But instead, a shameful, unspoken longing for her abusive father resurfaces, forcing her to confront the true nature of her trauma, and the ways in which it shaped her.

DIRECTOR'S NOTE

The film’s cinematic language is violent and direct, whilst the images created offer a pathway to raw emotions and a deep-seeded sense of longing. The theatrical world serves as an alternative fantasy, a crack through which memories leak into reality. The shifts between the rehearsals’ protected, intimate space,and the grandiose cabaret scenes create tension, disrupting the film’s tone and tempo, mirroring Dekel’s soul. Dekel’s freefall story is also the story of a space changing from a space of enablement, to a space of drowning. And just like the space itself, Dekel’s point of view changes before our eyes, shifting on the elusive continuum between a woman and a child. A continuum which, once accepted, carries the possibility of salvation.

ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS

○ Elinor Nechemya | Director
Elinor Nechemya is a Tel-Aviv based director and screenwriter. Her latest short film If It Ain’t Broke (2021) premiered at the Cannes Film Festival Semaine de la Critique. Her previous short films "Our Hearts Beat Like War" (2020) and "Everlasting Mom" (2017) both premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, and screened in various festivals including Locarno, Sarajevo, and Palm Springs. Alongside "Curtain Call" , Elinor is also working on her feature "Island", which participated in the 2021 Sam Spiegel Film Lab and in the NEXT STEP program of the Semaine de la Critique.

○ Sivan Gal Boico | Screenwriter
A graduate of the Sam Spiegel Film and Television School, Sivan is an active screenwriter, playwright and theater director. Her screenwriting work includes the acclaimed youth series "The Policeman’s Daughter" for TeenNick/YES, and the hit youth series "Full Speed" for TeenNick/HOT.
Her short film "Orange" won the Gesher Multicultural Film Fund Development Award, and is due to be produced in 2025.
Between 1998-2009 Sivan wrote and directed for theater in Australia. Her works were staged in various theaters and galleries, winning her the Melbourne International Arts Festival Young Playwright Award, as well as a Green Room Award nomination for her play The Cool Room, staged in Melbourne and Sydney.

PRODUCERS

Aurit Zamir, Yoav Roeh

Gum Films is a Tel-Aviv-based production company. Founders and owners, Yoav Roeh and Aurit Zamir graduated from the prestigious Sam Spiegel Film and Television School, and have been in the art and business of making movies for two decades, with a passion for meaningful, genre-bending films.
Films include "Delegation" which premiered at Berlinale 2023 and The Future which premiered at Tribeca 2023, as well as the award-winning film "Aisa", starring Shira Haas, which won the Nora Ephron Award at the Tribeca Film Festival 2020 and nine Israeli Academy Awards, including Best Film.
Series include "The Missing File" (2 seasons for Kan11, sold for US remake) and "For God’s Sake" (Kan 11). Aurit created and wrote "The Truth" (for Kan11). The series sold to Canal+, AMC, Be TV and more.

PRODUCTION COMPANY PROFILE

○ Gum Films, Tel Aviv
○ office@gumfilms.com
○ +972 52 6010403

PRODUCTION BUDGET

○Total budget: 1,450,000 USD
○ Confirmed budget and source: 15,000 USD
development grant, Israel Film Fund. Participated in the WomanFilms Narrative Film Hub initiated by the New Fund for Cinema & TV

LANGUAGE

Hebrew

GENRE

Drama

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