Exclusive Interview: LEBANON director Samuel Maoz

Obsessed With Film was lucky enough to meet up with Golden Lion winning director Samuel Maoz last month to discuss his highly acclaimed feature, Lebanon. He began our conversation (in an especially swanky Soho lounge) by expressing his happiness that a day of press commitments was about to end...

You are very lucky to be my last interview today!

Have you done many?

What? Over the last seven months!?

Fair point! What has been the reception to the film back in Israel?

In Israel it has been very interesting. If you analysed it, as much as the audience is young the reactions were positive, as much as they are old, the reactions are less positive and more negative. The first is better than the opposite I guess, because they are the future and the others are the past.

That€™s a good way of looking at it.

I can even understand it anyway, but I don€™t want to steer your questions€

No that€™s alright, what do you think the reason is?

The old generation: our parents, our teachers, many of them came from the German camps. I think they really believe that everybody wants to terminate us. And you know you just need to see the history. The old generation have had their wars because they had no other options, because everybody wanted to terminate us. So they had a huge motivation. But when my generation had its wars, it was so-so. But when the new generation, the YouTube generation, the global generation had their war with the best army, the best equipment, the best technology we lost. Maybe that€™s why the old generation still think that it€™s not the time to show a film like this in Israel €“ because maybe mothers won€™t send their sons to join the army and everybody wants to terminate us. The new generation says €œenough of this bullshit, maybe it was in your time but now it is totally different.€

But you see change in the young generation?

Yes. The people in Europe expected to see a humanistic change, but in the end this will come not because of humanistic reasons, but because of capitalistic reasons. Everything is legislative to bring peace except killing. And you don€™t have be friends for a peace agreement: you can see the peace agreement between Israel and Egypt has existed for 30 years even though we are not good friends. Even the relationship between the English and the French €“ you hate each other! But the new generation search for normal life. They don€™t have the motivation to fight in wars because they feel it is not their war.

Is there a movement in modern Israeli films (like yours and Ari Folman€™s €˜Waltz with Bashir€™) to be more critical of the recent past?

I think you can see all the war films all over the world have become very realistic and I don€™t think that it€™s to be political but to be effective. You need to try and change something, to try and make a stand and change opinions. The only way to do it €“ and this is a bit complex, but you know I could do a political film, but to a political film is to do, in a way, a politically correct film, because when I made €˜Lebanon€™ I didn€™t think about Venice and the Golden Lion and awards. I thought about my small country and if you want to change people€™s opinions you can€™t do it just the political way. Usually you will achieve the opposite; people will have extreme opinions because nobody likes to hear that he€™s a bad boy. But if you attack people from another angle: through the stomach, through the heart. Like everything in life when feeling is involved, becomes unstable. If you are a mother, for example, you won€™t really care if the soldier is Jew, Arab, right or wrong, but if the soldier is a child it could be your child. So you will feel that you care. So in the end, with all due respect, I prefer to change the opinion of one mother over one hundred journalists who expect it to be political, because in the end this is the meaning of being political: to achieve something, to change something. Political is not nice €“ it€™s to be effective.

When making the film, did you mainly feel a responsibility to put the truth of the experience across?

Totally, because I knew put the truth in front of your eyes with the condition that I must stick to the Jew from the beginning to the end, without flattering.

On a technical level, what were the challenges of shooting an entire film set inside a tank?

This is the beauty of cinema! You feel that you€™re inside a tank but there is no tank. When you analysed it €“ you see just close-ups. I give you twenty percent of the tank and all the rest is in your imagination. When film is working, one is much more than two. You take risks regarding to the editing process, because you don€™t have a place to escape if something is not working. You don€™t have two flats, two bars, one hospital, two cars, so you can€™t escape if something isn€™t working. But there are also advantages, like I could shoot the film from beginning to end. In the end you can€™t move right or left, so the only way is to dig deep.

Do you prefer to make films which are very tight and focussed? Can you see yourself making something much broader, or do you like to focus on a few characters in one situation?

To tell the truth I like making a film between two walls. I can€™t see myself dealing with sagas, with big stories. Maybe because I like to explore the moment and play with the time. To try to deal with the human soul and take time and spread myself, because in a big film you need to be based on a strong story, a strong plot. Otherwise it won€™t work. In a small film, you need a basic plot.

The film is based on your personal experience, am I correct?

That is my personal experience.

Was making the film in any way cathartic?

I can€™t deny that during the process I earned perhaps the best treatment I could have achieved for myself. But it is important to understand that that wasn€™t the reason behind the film, but I found myself earning it that way.

Have there been any screenings of film inside Lebanon? Is that a possibility?

It is a kind of impossible situation, but I have many e-mails people sent to me from Lebanon. They ask for a DVD to show underground. But now I can€™t send this because I have an agreement with SONY Classics, not to send this before the United States release. But after July, I will send them DVDs.

Do you have a project you€™re about to begin that you can talk about?

I feel now I€™m ready for a black comedy.

'Lebanon'is released on the 14th of May in the UK and is reviewed here.