Visiting French film duo ‘untouched’ by anti-Semitism
After the horrors of Toulouse, some rare optimism from the Jewish directors of France’s hit movie
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleJessica Steinberg, The Times of Israel's culture and lifestyles editor, covers the Sabra scene from south to north and back to the center
Given the innate issues of hatred and race in last week’s tragic Toulouse killings, it was somewhat heartening to hear from the Jewish French film directors of “Untouchables” (Intouchables in French), the hit film that opened the French Film Festival.
Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano were in Israel briefly last week to present their film at the ninth annual festival. Interviewed on the celebrity news show “Good Evening with Guy Pines,” the two talked about the fact that it had been a very difficult week for French Jews but that they have not encountered any anti-Semitism in the French film industry.
“Sometimes life for Jews in France is difficult,” said Toledano on the show, “and it has been a hard time for the Jewish community in France.”
When asked if they’re planning on buying some Israeli real estate ahead of a possible relocation, the two demurred, but said that French Jews have always been great supporters of Israel. According to recent Jewish Agency figures, close to 2,000 French Jews moved to Israel last year and a similar figure made aliya the previous year.
It has been a period of great professional triumph for these two filmmakers. Toledano told of receiving a phone call from President Nicolas Sarkozy several months ago while he was bathing his son.
“He was inviting me to dinner at the Elysee [the presidential palace],” said Toledano. “My parents immigrated from Morocco in 1977 and now their son is eating dinner at the palace.”
“Untouchables” is Toledano and Nakache’s fourth film and first commercial success.
The story of a quadriplegic white millionaire who hires a black ex-con as his caretaker and the friendship that develops between them, it is loosely based on a true story. It’s been called “corny, calculating and commercial” by The Hollywood Reporter, but it is topping the French charts.
The film is about living together, Toledano told the Berlin KinoFile(s) in a recent interview, “about there being a French community rich in its differences and not in its exclusion.”
Following their trip to Israel, the two were heading to the US for the opening of the film on the US circuit and then to Japan. The movie was shown in local cinemateques as part of the ongoing French Film Festival, a joint initiative by the French Embassy’s Cultural Department and the Eden Cinemas Company.
The French Film Festival is taking place through April 5, at cinemateque theaters throughout the country.
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