Melbourne Documentary Film Festival 2020 – Image of Victory
2014. Israel is at war in Gaza again. Uri, an Israeli soldier wounded on the battlefield, finds himself turned into a war hero by the visitors in the hospital. Now he and his family have to deal with his rehabilitation as well as newfound stardom. One family’s hardship turned public spectacle offers an inside look into Israeli society and the way war as a state-of-mind is shaping it as a nation.
Interview with Writer/Director/Producer Adi Mishnayot
Congratulations! Why did you make your film?
On July 25th 2014, something horrible happened. My younger brother, Uri, a soldier in mandatory military service, was shot and wounded in the third Gaza War ("Protective Edge"). When my parents and I got to the hospital we were astonished to find Uri surrounded by strangers from across the country, who came to cheer him as a war hero and celebrate Israel’s guaranteed victory in the war. That summer I followed my brother and parent through Uri's rehabilitation process that included him having to take on his new Israeli status and society's expectations of him as one. Following my family in this traumatic time turned public event, I tried to tell our side of the story.
Imagine I’m a member of the audience. Why should I watch this film?
You should watch Image of Victory if you want to know how nations use war glorification as a political device, to see a female perspective on a macho society and a peek behind the curtain of culture pertaining to military pursuits in Israel. If you are interested in the Israeli Palestinian conflict and want to see it from a unique inside perspective, or if you want to laugh and cry with my family during the hardest and strangest time we had to face in the summer of 2014.
How do personal and universal themes work in your film?
This question is really key to my film because it constantly touches the thin line drawn between the personal and the political. Firstly, how the public atmosphere affected the family's experience in the hospital. The way the soldiers and their families are treated like national property and are put on a pedestal for strategic purposes and political gain.
Secondly, it is at the same time a very personal account, a home-made styled movie that follows my own family through what is a very quintessential Israeli experience, filled with local celebrities and specific cultural connotations of war and heroism, while it is also a universal tale of how the war machine operates, elevating sacrifice and creating tales of glory to make the wounded and their families feel it was not for nothing and to make way for the next generation of wounded to come after them.
How have the script and film evolved over the course of their development?
Greatly. Because I set out shooting with no plan at all but just the drive to document this overwhelming point in time, it took a long time to put all the pieces together. We examined various forms of story-telling through the editing process, including interviews, voice-over techniques and scenes from the aftermath of the injury a year later but ended up rejecting all those because we wanted most of all to bring the viewers a raw, first-hand experience of what it felt like to have your personal pain turned to a symbol of heroism and sacrifice as an example for all to see. We knew the silent reactions on my parent’s faces, the little awkward moments, they gave us the truth much more than any traditional-form storytelling could ever give.
What type of feedback have you received so far?
In Israel Image of Victory was one of the most awarded short Student documentary in 2019 and got quite the local news coverage which meant for me that we definitely struck a chord on a subject people need to be talking about, and wanted to see from a different perspective.
It was met with great shock at the scenes from inside Gaza – opening many of the viewers' eyes to what it actually looked like and realizing how disconnected the visitors in the hospital, and most Israelis are, from what actually was going on the battlefield.
It also sparked much talk about the military figures in the film and their role in all this. Also, Israel's most famous model appears in the film and sparked much talk on celebrities' role in maintaining the mainstream narrative.
Has the feedback surprised or challenged your point of view?
One of the most surprising and touching reactions we received were from older veterans, some of whom have fought in the Six-Day War back in 1967, that told us they could see themselves in Uri, and totally identified with him and his feelings. It really shocked me to acknowledge how far back this goes, how the "making of war heroes" is rooted in our history and how many people carry these painful memories inside them for years.
What are you looking to achieve by having your film more visible on www.wearemovingstories.com?
I would love to have the opportunity to share my film with international audiences, to find opportunities for distribution and to get it across to more people and film lovers around the world.
Who do you need to come on board (producers, sales agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors, journalists) to amplify this film’s message?
We are doing great on the local scene and are now looking forward to international distribution, film festivals and sparking a talk on the film and screening Image of Victory around the world.
What type of impact and/or reception would you like this film to have?
I would love this film to give voice to so many individuals account of war being squashed and eased by the political majorities and Israel and anywhere else in the world, to start a conversation of the way the personal and the political connect and the way a personal story can shine a critical light on wrongdoing by governments. I want it to help spark the need for a change of discourse regarding heroism and the price of war versus the price of peace and compromise.
What’s a key question that will help spark a debate or begin a conversation about this film?
How much of your story is really your own? Or is the place and time you are born into determines most of the roles you will play? How do we keep accepting war as an unavoidable given, rather than seeing its absurdity?
Would you like to add anything else?
No, this was very thorough (:
What other projects are the key creatives developing or working on now?
Currently developing a script for a short fiction film, with a new edgy take on similar themes, farther examining heroism in Israeli culture and questioning the margins of political discussion and what happens to those who cross them.
Interview: July 2020
We Are Moving Stories embraces new voices in drama, documentary, animation, TV, web series, music video, women's films, LGBTQIA+, POC, First Nations, scifi, supernatural, horror, world cinema. If you have just made a film - we'd love to hear from you. Or if you know a filmmaker - can you recommend us? More info: Carmela
Image of Victory
2014. Israel is at war in Gaza again. Uri, an Israeli soldier wounded on the battlefield, finds himself turned into a war hero by the visitors in the hospital. Now he and his family have to deal with his rehabilitation as well as newfound stardom. One family’s hardship turned public spectacle offers an inside look into Israeli society and the way war as a state-of-mind is shaping it as a nation.
Length: 29:30
Director: Adi Mishnayot
Producer: Adi Mishnayot
Writer: Adi Mishnayot
About the writer, director and producer:
b.1988, ADI MISHNAYOT grew up in Tivon, a small suburb in the north of Israel. She lives in Tel-Aviv and studies film at Tel-Aviv University. In her studies, she directed and produced several shorts and took production roles in many others. Image of Victory, her first documentary has won every competition it was nominated for in Israel since its release in 2019 and she is currently working on a short fiction film.
Key cast: Uri Mishnayot, Itzik Mishnayot, Hadas Wiseman
Looking for: film festival directors, distributors, journalists
Facebook: Image of Victory
Hashtags used: #imageofvictory
Funders: Blavatnik Student Film Production Fund, NFCT, Self-funded
Where can I watch it next and in the coming month? The Melbourne Documentary Film Festival/Australia online - 30th June-15 July