002~ From Cannes to Berlin 2008

In 2008, opportunity came knocking on my door. To join the acclaimed Oscar nominee production entourage, 'Waltz With Bashir' team hooking up with international production companies, including 'The Match Factory', from Germany. Neta was one of the key animators in this amazing project, and I got to be the plus one :-). So we got to meet up with some very interesting people, and for me it was the first time I meet 'Germans' in an informal-holocaust related occasion. I really hoped I am vibing this nonchalant breezy kinda dude...but I'm pretty sure I wasn't and the drinks helped camouflage my fidgeting eyes and I was having a too aware, yet good time. It amazed me how obsessed I was almost as if I am dealing with a trauma first hand. Anyway, I met some lovely, easy going team members...and I just had to pop THE 'so...what did your grandparent do during those years' question to this lovely German, I was chatting with for a while, in one of those awkward silence-moments...

There was a lot of wine, and the accent wasn't very clear, but through the surrounding music, (and my beating heart), I am pretty sure she said her grandfather doesn't remember what he did...and BOOM, that collided head to head with the film about the Lebanon war, in which Ari Folman is tracing a lost memory of the time he was there, during the war...

And on with the journey we left, heading up from Cannes to Berlin, and we promised each other that we are going to avoid Holocaust-related tours...but something really weird was creeping up my back as we started forming a line, handing our documents to a German speaking person in a uniform. The Banality of a memory I guess.

Marseille Airport flight information sign photo by: Allon Zaslansky

I shot this homage to the film which was buzzing in my head for days...and this would symbolise to me the protagonists moment of awakening.

Next post - we land in Germany :-)