"I felt like I'm documenting the black box of my life Israel today

At one point a year and eight months ago, Gili Shoshan thought his days and family days were numbered. It happened right at the beginning of the first wave of the Corona, when the whole world shut itself in houses in an attempt to evade the mysterious virus that came from the East, and Shushan and his family did the same. The problem is that in their case, the virus has already found its way into the house, infecting it, his wife Dana and their daughter Deborah Leah, with the other five children in the family at risk. For the 48-year-old actor and creator, it was a nightmare that happens in reality, no less. Last moments on earth, at a time when a phone call from the Ministry of Health is considered a death notice. In the end no one died, but at least a movie came out of it.

"I felt that my house was like a ticking time bomb," he says on the eve of the opening of the Jerusalem Film Festival, where his documentary film "Anxiety" will be screened, which documents the moments of fear. "You feel like you're sailing into the unknown and you do not know where it's going to end. It's at levels that I'm imprisoned at home, talking to the general manager in charge of Corona in the area, who tells me 'Listen, we do not know how to deal with your case, of six people at home. Tomorrow, I'll tell you how we're going to run it - hospital or home, what's better for us, for you, for your children. He's basically telling me 'I do not know how we should treat this thing. "Medicines, to talk to you, to calm you down. Between heaven and earth. I have no land under my feet."

And in the midst of it all, the first thing you thought of doing was start shooting.

"First of all I felt like I was documenting the black box of my life. Even before art, even though every look I have is connected to the work. The phone calls from the Ministry of Health have taken me years out of life. These are times of hysteria and people still do not understand what's going on. I was done. God, ask that your life be saved. No one can come to my house to save me. I am with six small children, one of whom has a rare heart infection. And it is she, of them all, who finally receives the corona. "You feel your life is in danger. They could not come to me to check my pulse. So I took a picture in case anyone wanted to know what was there."

The documentation did not disturb the other members of the household? What are you shooting now, everyone's going to die.

"Absolutely. Dana is 180 degrees upside down from me. For the premiere of the film she does not want to come, she sees a camera and snatches perspiration. We had real conversations about it. I beg, 'Dana Brass,' first of all medically, that we have a record of what's going on here. In terms of life insurance, the Ministry of Health. So here she exercised discretion that helped me. Besides she is still my wife, and after a while she realized how important this thing is to me and how much it is gaining momentum. For me it was to turn this lemon into lemonade. We will turn this terrible disease and jeep into a blessing. "

You document in the film the moment you are informed and you inform her that you are both ill.

We have not seen many such moments immortalized.

"You captured the rarity of the film. It's a historical document. In China, Spain, in all the places where it broke out, I have not seen any family photograph this whole initial process, in this amazing period of the first days. I do not know another such work, which documents this gospel "While people fell apart in horror. Today people no longer understand it, it seems funny. There is a section that did not enter the film for reasons of modesty, but when Dina got the news she fell apart on the floor. I was done. You are just praying that your life will be saved."

From the movie "Anxiety",

"Feeling a partnership of destiny"

"Anxiety" does at times feel like a horror movie. Scenes that today seem completely absurd because of their stupidity, such as going outside the house of a pupil to clear the garbage, take on a dimension of urgency, the result of a combination of photography in the dark and characters running in panic, against a threatening soundtrack. The film, which was actually a mini-series before, documents almost two months of isolation, going through a whole range of phases and emotions. Existential anxiety, small moments of grace in the family, and finally a great catharsis, in the form of the confirmation that all the family members have survived the inferno and they can go free.

Shoshan and his secular partner, Ariel Tempel, created a redemption story that many will identify with. Even if it takes place, from all places, in an ultra-Orthodox house in Safed.

On the one hand, it is a sufficiently universal work, in which Judaism and the religious element do not really play too central a role. This is not a story about a Jewish family as it is a story about a family.

On the other hand, the name of God is mentioned in it more than once, whether as a source for directing prayer or as a mechanism of satisfying reason and answers within all this trolling.

Shushan did not want religion to be too present in him. This is not a film aimed at even a local audience (at some point it explains to viewers what hope is). But it is difficult to separate the two, certainly in light of what is perceived from the outside as the watershed in secular and religious Israeli relations.

"For us as creators, the film is for everyone in the world," he says.

"Because we were optimistic and wanted him to reach everyone, I said to myself, 'Hello, you's Doss. 50 percent of the people watching this film do not understand Dosland.' And the personal, regardless of religion, race and gender. So yes, it happens in a religious home, there are also these fragrances too. "It appears in small places. It all happens to a Hasidic family in the Galilee, a family that believes in redemption."

From the movie "Anxiety",

Are you important that he surprise people? The prevailing perception is that the religious public did not internalize the magnitude of the event.

"I hope not today, because it has already been discovered in a wavy bristle. People know religious are people who are not connected to Google or media sources on a daily level. Hundreds of thousands of them even have WhatsApp, so by the time things get there there are awfully big filters. It's like it used to be. "The second they understood the severity of the situation and saw what was happening on the ground, people immediately responded. In essence, we were on this thing together, the religious did not take any different decree from everyone. We do feel a shared destiny. So it took some time to find out at first."

Such a story recently also brought you a crisis of faith?

"No, no. For me I experience things with the Creator on levels I have no doubt about. He can not save, his right, who I am and what I am? But I am sure he hears me and creates every slightest movement of a blink in my eye. In essence what I think humanity is Should learn following the corona it is to come out of the destructive hatred of the world destroyer, and learn to experience the wonderful unity that resides in all.It comes to teach human beings to unite and in a way that all possible resources and hearts and minds, will teach children and youth in formal and informal educational institutions. "The amazing, mental inwardness that resides within them. I believed in the good."

From the movie "Anxiety",

"'Upside down' was heavenly"

If not the name, at least the face behind the beard you have known for years.

Even if more than 20 years have passed since he found the religion and repented, in the local collective cultural memory he is still remembered by many as Issachar, the character he played in the old Channel 2 "Upside Down" series.

Issachar Darwin, a former bodyguard, is considered one of the most prominent characters in that series, who told the story of a group of young Tel Avivians (not to mention the plot detail that was somehow omitted along the way, revolving around the idea of ​​filming the first Israeli porn film).

Issachar of Shushan was a somewhat delusional figure, as they liked to say then.

Dreamy, restrained and also very preoccupied.

A bit like in reality, he says.

And the sudden star status that landed on him did not help, nor did the large sums of money.

Do you think your secular version would have handled the whole situation differently?

"An interesting question. You have to go into guided imagery for this thing. Obviously it was completely different, I had less with whom to cry out and beg for medicine, redemption and health. It could have been more stressful for me, because I had less ability to connect to infinity and the uninitiated. "We found out then. Let's start with the fact that I did not have six children. I was afraid of myself and maybe two more. But I'm sure I would take it to my place, write about it and take pictures of things."

Do you still recognize yourself as a rewarder?

"In Safed it happens less, but of course when I come across people who have passed the age of 30 or 35 then they remember. They grew up on me."

flattering.

"Not who knows what. When I was at the height of slavery it just shrank me. I never dreamed of being famous. I have fun and I feel it's a blessing that I have the opportunity to connect with a lot of people. But on the contrary he - when I had it I did not feel it, I did not celebrate It".

When was the last time you saw an episode of "Upside Down"?

"An entire episode? A long time ago. Maybe a few months ago I got to see part of an episode, but to really sit and watch 'Upside Down' is far away on levels of years. I also live it, I remember some things on such levels. I do not need a reminder, Issachar is part from me".

What do you think of the person who embodies him?

"I feel sorry for him, I'm very sorry. I had a hard time back then. I just finished Nissan Lane's acting studio and I'm at levels of sensitivities I was born with a severe problem of attention and excitement, this is before Ritalin. In kindergarten I went from punishment to punishment, from the puppet corner to the dice corner to the book corner. And I'm a diligent failure. It made me feel very uncomfortable. To write, I would flee to the notebook with a pencil, locked in my room and writing songs about pain.

"In third grade the teacher finds my song and does not believe that a child can express himself in such levels of pain. I felt helpless, Helpless. I want to cry just from remembering those moments. A child who feels he is the most unwelcome thing in the world. Not rejected, I was always a friend. But inside me - done. "

Lily in the series "Upside down" // Photo: From YouTube,

"I was worthless"

You would expect success and external approval to cure some of this pain.

"When I suddenly became famous, at the age of 23-22 it was the first time that the boy, the ugly, black goat duckling, was suddenly getting attention, positive criticism. It was the first time my mom and dad started getting kind words about me. Suddenly some light instead of failures On the one hand it was a very big success, but I experienced a real breakdown, mentally.

"I look at the actor and the celeb and I do not fall for this nonsense, I know what's going on there, I remember the crazy break in the filming of the first and second season. I'm crushed, a crushed kid holding himself in a nail. "No word will describe it. I did not then have this place of the answer, of the Creator."

"Upside Down" aired for a total of two years, no more than three seasons, and had almost no reruns. Why do you think she is remembered so well?

"I think even when we did it we laughed about being here, sorry for the religious law, something heavenly. The connection between the people and the friendships formed there, everything exists to this day, these are my best friends. We felt there was always something there, even before we repented, too Danny (Steg) and both I and Michael (Weigel). Even then they talked about it from the secular place, that there is a very nineties scent here, like 30 years before of the 'Lol' group. And I do not compare, God forbid, we are not at these levels. I Feels like you, there was something special there. "

This is the right time to suggest a reunion episode.

"If Shmuel (Haimovich, creator and writer of the series; according to) had written some masterpiece ... not even a masterpiece.

Just a lottery.

No matter what, these are people I love dearly - each and every one of them.

Up to the level of the boom-man, the photographer, the actual producers.

This is something inexplicable.

I already said - heavenly. " 

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