December 2023 We published an interview with filmmaker Michal Bat Adam, Just before receiving the Beloved Award at the Jerusalem International Women's Film Festival. This week, her new and intriguing film was released “Hila”. On the Occasion, We went back to the interview we had with her, In it, she spoke about the personal conflict that accompanied her in the making of the film, For the painful longing for the love of her life and for the separation from beauty and youth:

“They thought I wouldn't be able to make any more movies. I said to myself, They wrote so much evil about me, It's a sign that I exist – and the difficulty activated me and gave me strength. When I received the Israel Prize, there were those who apologized. Someone wrote to me that only now do they understand what I did, And I'm happy and thankful to God every day for giving me the wisdom to keep doing mine, Even when I am beaten. I do what I can, And wants to do it without anger or bitterness”.

These are the words that Michal Bat Adam says from the height of her years, Just before she receives the Jerusalem International Women's Film Festival's Beloved Award. “A dear man once told me that I need to understand this, A Girl Who Didn't Study Cinema Came and My First Film as a Director, 'Moments'. Arrives at the Cannes Film Festival and is sold all over the world. Then, You go back and make films like 'On a Tightrope'’ And "A Son Takes a Daughter", They write badly about you, but you're yours. Visiting men had a hard time accepting it. The climax of the lynching’ He was in 'The Lover'. Even before the premiere, Someone wrote that I go from nipple to nipple”.

“I said to myself, They wrote so much evil about me, It's a sign that I exist – and the difficulty activated me and gave me strength. When I received the Israel Prize, there were those who apologized. I am happy and thank God every day for giving me the wisdom to continue doing mine, Even when I am beaten”

It's been more than five decades since she burst into our lives. To Michal Bat Adam, director, A screenwriter and actress with a clear female voice and a huge cinematic harvest, 14 Films as a director and creator and 14 films as an actress. Additionally, She has released two albums in which she reads poetry and two other books of poetry – “But I don't call myself a poet”, She says.

It has a considerable reputation: Lifetime Achievement Award at the International Women's Film Festival a decade ago, The Ophir Prize for Lifetime Achievement and the Israel Film Prize awarded to her in 2021 for being a pioneer and trailblazer in Israeli cinema. At the end of the month, she will receive another prize, as mentioned, After being selected as the darling of the International Women's Film Festival. The festival will be held at the Jerusalem Cinematheque on the dates 25-28.12, It will include events and screenings free of charge. She will receive the prize for her extensive work and contribution to the design of Israeli cinema, During which her new film will premiere “Hila”, Written and directed by.

The film touches and moves, Watching it is pure pleasure, The dialogues are very pinching., The game is excellent, And the pain of love and longing for what we are not – drips from him. The film tells the story of Hila (The wonderful Jade Weeks), Single mother of 7-year-old Naomi (Ayala Peleg). Shaul (Yaakov Zada Daniel) The father of Hila's daughter, He does not know that Naomi is his daughter and is not aware of her existence. Hila's love for him is obsessive. When she finds out that he has returned to Israel with his wife and daughter, She tries to meet with him, She wants him too much, But he evades her. Girl? She wants a father. When Hila's heart opens to Michael (Pini Tavger), She is overwhelmed with anxiety lest she lose Saul. Will the secret be revealed?? Will you be able to fall in love with another and give a chance to rewarding love? You will have to watch and find out for yourself. The photography was entrusted to Yoav Kosh, who has been loyally accompanying her for years; The assistant director is Rivka Toman-Cohen, who has also been accompanying her with great dedication in recent years; The executive producer is Lihi Lubetkin and the editor is Tomer Abend.

There are autobiographical features in the film or the script is fictional?
“I always know from my gut why I'm making a certain movie, And there was a moment when I was debating whether to make the film or not. What really happened remains only between me and me, Because it's mine. In my films there is a mother-daughter relationship, And the same is true in the movie 'Halo', So you can't escape the personal – even though I was my mother's mother, And an aura is not like that”.

“In the past, I came to the writer Dan Benya Seri to buy the rights to 'Naftali's Thousand Wives is a good sign', He didn't understand what a Polish woman like me wanted such a story”, She says on the same occasion, and sheds a little more light on her enigmatic life, “I wanted to make the film, Because I realized that the silence that was there was something I experienced with my parents. In the film 'Aya – An Imaginary Autobiography', I have already added the word 'imaginary', So that they don't come to me with complaints. I invited my violin teacher to watch the film, There was a scene where I almost forced him to hug me and he didn't want to. He told me at the end of the screening that nothing like this had happened, And I replied that in my eyes there was more. For me, it was not imaginary. In some of my films, my parents' dances are repeated, And my parents never danced. The fact that it's a recurring motif, Maybe it's because I wanted them to dance”.

Your movies have a lot of erotic scenes, which were considered provocative at the time and were even censored.
“I don't use the word erotica. I love love”.

“There was a moment when I was debating whether to make the film or not. What really happened remains only between me and me, Because it's mine. In my films there is a mother-daughter relationship, And the same is true in the movie 'Hila’ – Even though I was my mother's mother, And an aura is not like that”

You hold quite a few awards, And now you get another exciting prize. What it does to you?
“I have no regard for prizes, I'm happier if someone sees a movie of mine. It makes me laugh, They say 'the darling of the festival'. When I received the Israel Prize, I didn't understand at first, I thought I was making terrible movies. When I was informed ahead of the Ophir Awards ceremony that I was receiving a lifetime achievement award, It also seems far-fetched to me, I told the person who called that I wanted to think, And then I said to myself – if you are offered, Say thank you. I expect the movie 'Halo’ Will speak to people who will love him, That it will move them and that they will hear the heartbeat that I put there”.

A love story born on stage

Michal Bat Adam was a budding actress, Graduate of Beit Zvi, Young and beautiful daughter 23 Just, When a lioness is a fortune, who was her agent in those days, Proposed to Moshe Mizrahi, Even then, an esteemed director, Screenwriter and producer who worked in Paris, Come and watch the play “Bernarda Alba House” of Lorca. Eight women played in the play, Among them is a human being. From the distance of the years, she reconstructs: “Normally I should have been a musician and that's what I thought I would do after years of playing the violin, But after I played musicals for a living with Giora Godik, I got crazy about standing on a stage and went to study acting. In the play in question, I played an ugly hunchback sister with a headscarf on her head, and Moshe watched the play and noted to himself that I was acting really well, It's just a shame that I look the way I do. During the break he flipped through the program, He saw a photograph of me in real life and asked to meet me”.

She was married at the time, He was divorced for several years and the father of a daughter and 14 years older than her. The meeting between them led to her divorce and gave birth to a great love story, Together with a fruitful joint work between an actress and a director – among other things, in”I love you Rosa” and”The house on 3th Street” who were nominated for an Oscar, “Abu al-Banat” and”He's had his whole life ahead of him.” by Emile Ajar (French writer Romain Gary's pseudonyms), Critically acclaimed French film, which earned him a year of 1977 Oscars in the Best Foreign Language Film category. Bat Adam played the lead role alongside Simone Siniora. Initially, they met during breaks from her work here as an actress in”Cameri” And peaceful in Paris, Until she decided to live with him in Paris.

before 43 A year later, their only son, Daniel, was born., Musician living in Paris, Among other things, he also writes music for his mother's films. He is married to a French actress who started out as a singer, They appear together and separately, And they have two children.
Michal and Moshe Mizrahi made films together and separately for the duration of the 46 Year. He died at their home on Dizengoff Street in Tel Aviv, in the year 2018. son 86 Was. “Moses was the love of my life, I found someone who was close to me in every look, Thinking, Sensitivity, And that he was older, He gave it strength, Even though I didn't feel the age difference. Two people of the same age, each looking for himself, is more difficult. Moshe believed and supported me very much. He gave me the greatest gift – total trust that I know what I'm doing. He had a lot of wisdom and it made life a lot easier. Apart from love, There was also understanding and sensitivity between us, And we could have been., Speaking and Silence”.

“Moses was the love of my life, And that he was older, He gave it strength, Even though I didn't feel the age difference. He gave me the greatest gift – total trust that I know what I'm doing”

My meeting with her – one-on-one, About a light Bohrian meal – it was surprising. I remembered her from the distant past. Without a doubt she was one of the most beautiful women here, It is endowed with quiet and high-quality beauty. She seemed to me at the time somewhat distant and mysterious. Now, When she is already in her seventies, I discovered a deep woman, But very at eye level. It's hot, Attentive, Sensitive and pleasant to speak. The cliché that a beautiful woman died twice – for the first time when her beauty disappeared, And the second time, as is the way of all flesh and blood – quite amusing her. She has nothing to do with the evolution of beauty. who began her career in Israeli cinema in the early 1970s and is now in her 70s, I'd rather I don't write the exact age, Although it appears on Wikipedia along with her date of birth. She did not do any treatment for her face, Non-Surgery, May God have mercy on them, Nor are injections. She is most at peace with herself.

Age doesn't scare you?
“No. I've never been interested in my beauty, So I had no difficulties separating from him and my youth, But all these years I cheated about my age. I also lied in the documents, Because for women, the number next to the name doesn't help. Still, Although on Wikipedia there is a bastard who wrote Gili, I don't feel like it's blocking me. I don't waste a single ounce of energy on how I'll be seen. People Waste Energy on Imagine’ specific that they want to create. I am exactly how I am, And I didn't invest energy in what I'm not. It is said that Churchill came one day to speak on television, The makeup artist went over to do his makeup and then he said something along the lines of: 'I worked so these wrinkles, And you want to delete them?”.

What does scare you??
“Elevators. I live in a building with no elevator and walk up to my apartment. When I have to go up to a high floor in a high-rise building, I never go up alone because of fear”.

Mom's Mommy

She was born in Afula under the name Michal Rubin, And from the age of 7 She grew up as an out-of-town child in Kibbutz Merchavia, Because of the situation at home. Her older sister was sent there before her, And there on the kibbutz they both changed their last name to Bat Adam. Her sister still lives on the kibbutz.

About the home in which she grew up and the necessity to leave it, She tells: “My father had a photography shop and he took pictures of me and my sister. My mother wasn't like any other mother., She was not mentally healthy, And as far as I'm concerned, it meant taking responsibility. When we walked down the street or to the grocery store, I couldn't take my eyes off her. I don't remember what happened in the first years of my life at home, And I wonder why I never asked my father. I remember climbing on a chair to the sink to wash dishes”.

“There was love between Mom and Dad”, She shares, “He didn't know how to express, And she knew how to hug and kiss me, But don't make me breakfast before kindergarten. Once in first grade’ I came to the company and we had lunch. Before we started playing, The dishes in the sink were washed, And this thing – which is so ordinary, Seems like a miracle to me, Because with us, the dishes have always remained in the sink”.

“I've never been interested in my beauty, So I had no difficulties separating from him and my youth, But all these years I cheated about my age. I also lied in the documents, Because for women, the number next to the name doesn't help. Still, Although on Wikipedia there is a bastard who wrote Gili, I don't feel like it's blocking me”

What made you move to a kibbutz?
“My sister, who is five years older than me, She passed before me to Merhavia.. When my father asked me if I wanted to go to her, I didn't want to., But I said yes – because I knew he had already decided. On the kibbutz I was without parents, But I didn't think I was miserable or miserable in my childhood. When I got to talk to therapists who saw my films, They asked me if it was better to stay at home despite the difficulties or to go through childhood somewhere else. I wanted to stay at home, But from the moment I moved to the kibbutz I was there. When possible, I went on vacations at home, Mom was in hospitals a lot. People always asked how I wasn't angry, And I wasn't angry”.

“Up to Grade 10”I was a burnt kibbutznik, And I thought I'd stay on the kibbutz”, She tells, “But my mother's condition deteriorated and I didn't want her to be hospitalized, So I left at the end of the year and didn't”B. I took care of her and didn't move from her, And after that year I knew I wouldn't go back to the kibbutz. Mother died when she was a child 58, And my father remarried, But I'm not talking about it. He died at the age of 86”.

“I didn't serve in the army”, She continues with the flurry, “I didn't want to serve coffee. I said that if they accept me to Galei Tse”For then I will enlist. I auditioned, But because of the R’ Mine said I couldn't be accepted. I issued postponements and in the end I went to study at the Tel Aviv Academy of Music”.

What a mother you were to your son when he was young.?
“When he was little, I had to take care of my mother, He suffered from it and it wasn't easy, But I explained to him that all kinds of parents have defects. I work on the relationship all the time, And it's excellent. On October 3, I went to him and his family in Paris, And four days after the outbreak of the war. I stayed with them until the end of October”.

How are you dealing with the situation here??
“What happened is outside of humanity. I don't know how to digest it, And I have nowhere to run inside me. I pass by the Abductees Square, Friends are talking next to me and I'm silent. I don't know what to say. I'm also terrified of what they're going to do militarily. Now we have to be careful and not say anything, But I'll speak when the time comes.. In 1967 I thought that the territories would be returned and there would be peace, But the story with the Palestinians remained unresolved for years. During the Oslo Accords, I held meetings between Israeli youth and youth from Gaza, It was as if we had touched peace and then intifadas, and something unresolved – and this sin continued”.

You speak out of pain.
“Yes. I don't believe that things will be solved by force. I made a sticker that said 'Human=Human=Human=Human.’ In many languages, And I walk the streets and infect him. Humanity would have benefited if they had invested in education from the day the child was born, He is told that there is light during the day and darkness at night, But they don't say that a human being is worth a human being. If they had said it from infancy,, The world would look different. But humanity has mined intuition, And many don't know what they want, Because their parents said such and such. God gave me a gift, The fact that I live from the stomach, And I know that what I want is justice – even if I can't always uphold it”.

“What happened is outside of humanity. I don't know how to digest it, And I have nowhere to run inside me. I pass by the Abductees Square, Friends are talking next to me and I'm silent. I don't know what to say”

For many years you have only been writing and directing, But I don't play. You've finished the acting chapter of your life?
“I was offered roles in the cinema, But not interesting things. Lately I want to act in the theater, I'm longing for it – and I've already told Tzipi Pines – and in the meantime I'm compensating myself by reading poetry from stages.. I'm a freak of such evenings of singing”.

You managed to make a living all your life only from cinema, With your glorious resume?
“All my life I have earned from working outside of movies. You can't build on movie revenues. At a certain point, I had the real possibility of making an American-produced film with someone famous, They made an appointment for me at Universal Studios, But I canceled. I realized that I have to make movies, These are the only ones I can express myself through. I have taught cinema in many places, And recently, And after 25 Year, Stopped. I feel rich – in the family, with love. I do what I want. If there's air to breathe – it's wealth. Money has never been a motivation for me, I worked to live”.

You have professional regrets?
“No. I'm happy with my part. I could have made more movies, I had concrete suggestions, But it was always important for me to tell what I wanted the way I wanted – so I refused”.

What will your next movie be about??
“I didn't mean to talk about it, But I'll tell you I'm making a documentary about Moses.. I took a picture of him at home. Maybe it makes it easier for me to see him all the time, And he's constantly present in my life”.

Skip reading the article on the website Mag