In 1st-ever film made by sisters, Dana and Rutu Modan bring family story to silver screen

It took 14 years for the Modan sisters to make “The Property,” but working together on the film was always the primary goal, said director Dana Modan.

“There have been brothers who have made movies together, for sure,” said Dana, also known for her work as an actress. “But we’re the first movie made by sisters.”

“The Property” is certainly a family affair, and is based on the award-winning 2013 graphic novel of the same name by Rutu Modan, which won an Eisner Award for best new graphic album at the 2014 San Diego Comic-Con International.

The Hebrew-language film, which hit Israeli theaters on December 5, tells the story of a young Israeli woman and her grandmother who travel to Warsaw to reclaim the deed to an apartment building their family was forced to relinquish during World War II.

Their trip becomes more complicated and mysterious than it initially seemed as it becomes clear that grandmother Regina has kept certain details about the family to herself.

Meanwhile, granddaughter Mika meets a charming Polish man around her age and the trip turns into more of a journey with romantic, comic and historical twists.

Sisters Rutu and Dana co-wrote the screenplay, which Dana directed as her debut film, starring Uri Hochman, Sharon Strimban and veteran actress Rivka Michaeli.

“We always said as kids that we would work together,” said Dana, describing the sisters’ games as children, when they would stage plays and radio programs.

Rutu, older by four years, created her first comics for Dana, featuring a character named Bozli the dog. The last time they worked on something together was in high school when they pitched a column for Hebrew language daily Hadashot and ended up being featured in an article.

“We each got busy in our careers and we looked for the right thing to do together,” said Dana. “We always talk and get advice from one another, and support each other.”

When Rutu published “Exit Wounds,” her 2007 graphic novel about the tense period of terrorist bombings in Tel Aviv, Dana thought that was the right story to adapt and even sourced funding for the project.

But Rutu had already begun working on “The Property,” following her usual practice of first writing the story as a script, Dana said.

“She let me read it and I saw that ‘The Property’ was the better choice for us,” she said.

They returned the funding for “Exit Wounds” and began working on the script for “The Property,” before Rutu had even sketched her images for the graphic novel.

That was some 14 years ago.

In between, each sister worked on other projects and Dana would return to the script whenever she had some extra time.

“It’s not simple to work together,” said Dana. “It’s a factor, and Rutu is one of the most important people in my life. We have fights and can threaten each other and an hour later be friends again.”

Much of the dialogue from the film is taken from the book, said Modan, who made sure to keep asking Rutu for her opinion on all facets of the script.

The actors also changed over the 14 years. When they first began working on “The Property,” Dana, now 54, thought she would play Mika, the granddaughter character who bears more than a few similarities to her personality.

And then, too much time had passed and it didn’t make sense for Dana to play a young woman in her 20s.

“I don’t pay attention to time passing, it surprises me,” she said. “I just moved houses and some of the cartons say ‘Parents’ Room,’ and I’m like, ‘Who are the parents here?'”

When they finally began filming “The Property” a year and a half ago, actor Hochman told Dana that at this point she could play Regina, the grandmother, she said with a laugh.

Yet there’s a satisfying sense of closure in having veteran actress Michaeli play Regina, as Dana grew up in her house as a longtime friend of Michaeli’s daughter, Michal.

“We would do plays and she would direct us,” Dana said. “So for me was very emotional to close that circle for both of us,” since Michaeli still lives in the same house and they often rehearsed the film there so as not to exhaust the 85-year-old.

Other personal elements to this story, which is inspired by their father’s family, included filming in certain neighborhoods and buildings in Poland that figured into their family’s life.

“I love that people see the movie and don’t know all those details but those details offer depth,” said Dana. “It’s all these little things that no one knows but I know.”

The two sisters first traveled to Poland in 2008 when Rutu was researching the graphic novel and Dana tagged along. When they decided to make the film, they returned multiple times to Krakow to scout locations and then film the movie.

“What was fascinating was that we immediately felt at home,” said Dana. “We felt like we know all the people and the mentality, and it was really strange. Maybe it’s because we’re the second generation [after the Holocaust] — the generation of Regina doesn’t forgive and the middle generation, that’s us, we’re still sort of in it and don’t forget it and the next generation is like, ‘Enough with all this Holocaust stuff already.'”

The movie had already been filmed when the October 7 Hamas terror onslaught took place in Israel’s south, and at the time, Dana needed to finish editing the film.

The director said she isn’t sure she could have continued working on it if the subject hadn’t been connected to the Holocaust and the idea of Jewish survival.

There are certain scenes, including several filmed in a Krakow cemetery and the Warsaw Ghetto, that suddenly have additional meaning because of what happened in Israel on October 7, said Dana.

At the same time, it’s a film that offers a break from the current news, she noted, with a lighthearted, sometimes romantic storyline that offers a break from the current reality.

“It’s fitting for now,” she said. “I feel it’s very international now and it’s like giving a gift to people, to go out and see a movie and not think about anything else for an hour and a half.”