Last update - 00:00 07/03/2007
Under the IDF spotlight
By Goel Pinto
Joseph Cedar's "Beaufort" will open in movie theaters tomorrow, and Renan Schorr's "Habodedim" ("The Lonely Ones") is currently being filmed. Both movies are based on actual events and focus on the Israel Defense Forces. Cedar's film deals with soldiers stationed at a legendary Lebanese fort, while Schorr's film tells the story of soldiers detained at Prison 6, whose revolt gets out of control.
The films' producers have made starkly contrasting statements about their experiences working with the IDF Spokesman's Office: "The support the IDF lent us was amazing," "Beaufort" producer David Mandil says. Schorr, however, counters, "the Defense Ministry and the IDF have an unreasonable and inappropriate monopoly over the collective IDF experience, which belongs to all of us. The army assists only those who self-censor. The IDF spokesman's outdated, hypocritical and anti-liberal modus operandi in the production field must be exposed."
Draconian clauses
Every film or TV production team that requires the defense establishment's support, whether in borrowing military equipment or receiving logistical advice, is required to file a request with the IDF Spokesman's Office. The request is processed by a production department, headed by a senior officer. Until two weeks ago, Major Shlomit Shavit, a low-ranked officer, was in charge of the production department, which is staffed by seven soldiers.
The filmmaker delivers his or her script, and if it reflects the values promoted by the IDF Spokesman's Office, it is approved and passed through the ranks until it receives the chief of staff's seal of approval. Since Miri Regev took office as IDF spokeswoman, the chief of staff has accepted all of her decisions.
Once the approval is granted, the filmmaker is presented with a standard contract, which includes draconian claims that bear witness to the military's influence on Israeli culture.
Clause B of the contract, for example, under the heading "general," states that "the IDF spokesman can withdraw permission for filming - without any prior notification - including in the midst of filming." In clause B, under the heading "submission of photographed material," it states "the IDF spokesman and the Defense Ministry are allowed to reject parts of the raw material and/or script and/or the finished product."
If the filmmaker accepts the contract terms, IDF Spokesman's Office soldiers then escort him throughout the filming period. They keep a watchful eye, are present at every scene and at every interview, and ensure the filmmaker abides by all the agreed-upon conditions. As for borrowing equipment, the production team is required to pay NIS 869 per day for a Merkava tank, NIS 108 for an armored personnel carrier and NIS 284 for an armored HMMWV.
No reservations? All systems go
Mandil says that the IDF refused to cooperate in Cedar's movie "Hahesder" ("Time of Favor"). "We were told by the IDF Spokesman's Office that they couldn't support a movie in which a soldier plans to bomb the Temple Mount," he says.
In the case of "Beaufort," however, the IDF had no reservations. "They didn't have a single reservation concerning the script," Mandil says, and refutes the rumor that a scene in an early draft, of a soldier refusing to obey an order, was omitted at the IDF spokesman's order. "Anyone who saw the movie can understand it was not easy for the IDF to support 'Beaufort,'" says Mandil.
The "Habodedim" production team, on the other hand, underwent a "traumatic experience" with the IDF Spokesman's Office. "Not only did they not cooperate with me," says Renen Schorr, "but they deceived me." This attitude rekindled memories of the army's refusal to cooperate with Schorr in his movie "Late Summer Blues," in 1987. Schorr says he was told at the time that the script, that expressed compassion toward a teenager who refused to enlist and to another who lowered his health profile to join the army's musical ensemble, was a "PLO script."
At the beginning of work on "Habodedim," Schorr received permission to tour Prison 6. He even met with the prison's commanding officer and took still photographs for research purposes. About six months later, after Schorr asked for permission to film in an Abu Gosh police structure, built by the British during the Mandate period, he was asked to submit the script for examination. "From the moment we handed in the script, which is much less severe than what actually took place in Prison 6, everything turned upside down," he says. "They ignored us. They deceived us ... Everything was done to stall us. Even when we tried to pressure politicians at the highest levels, we failed. In the end, I understood that we had to cut off all ties and we filmed in an institution for delinquents in Herzliya, which falls under the auspices of the Health Ministry."
Shavit, who repeatedly met with Schorr, is surprised by his reaction: "The fact that we didn't help in the filming stage does not pertain to the script," she says, "but to the fact that he insisted on filming at a location which we couldn't allow according to legal advice. Renen knows how much effort we invested and how much we fought and struggled against the system so that he could film."
An educational, Zionist objective
Major Shavit has been head of the production department at the IDF Spokesman's Office for four years. She says that in the past two and a half years, there has been a 200 percent increase in the number of film and television productions that receive the army's assistance. "IDF Spokeswoman Miri Regev," says Shavit, "decided to head up a policy of cooperation, aid and involvement in movies made about the army and with the army. We are in charge of the IDF's image. When you're not involved, you have no influence, and then things could turn out inaccurate or distorted. When we see that a movie has an educational, social, Zionist objective, which doesn't harm the IDF's image or the State of Israel, we offer our help."
"There are conditions for aiding a production," says Shavit. "The army and the nation's values can't be harmed. And if we see that there is such harm, we draw the filmmakers' attention to this and say that if they want, they can fix it, so we can cooperate and assist them. We support criticism and dilemmas, but we won't support a movie, which promotes something that goes against our values."
Another person whose request for assistance with his production was denied because of "IDF values" is Gal Ohovsky, producer of "Yossi and Jagger" which tells the story of a secret love affair between two male officers at a military post. According to Shavit, the rejection stemmed from another more minor love affair that appears in the movie. "There are relations there between an officer and his female clerk," she says, "and that goes against the IDF's values."
Shavit stresses that every production that receives IDF assistance also, "receives the IDF signature." She adds: "The IDF can't sign its name to a movie like this. I can't deliver this kind of message to female soldiers."
In contrast, "The Bubble," the movie that Eytan Fox and Ohovsky created after "Yossi and Jagger," received the IDF spokesman's support.
"Although this movie is not easy to digest, and depicts soldiers at checkpoints, we did provide assistance," says Shavit. "We took the production staff to the checkpoint, where they met with people so that they could see what things really looked like. The same goes for 'Beaufort.' We took the actors to a military post for a week."
Ohovsky says he received the IDF spokesman's permission for "The Bubble" after a personal conversation with Regev.
"I decided to call her," he says "because I knew that if I took the conventional route I would encounter rejection. We understood that they would be alarmed by the checkpoint in the movie, as if there were no checkpoints in the real world. And I succeeded in convincing her, after I explained that when I went to the Berlin Film Festival and everyone asked me if the IDF assisted in the production, shouldn't I tell them it did?"
Like Schorr, Ohovsky believes there is no justified reason for the IDF spokesman to decide who receives aid. "The IDF is not a private body, it represents all of Israel's citizens," says Ohovsky, "and the right thing to do is to supply everyone with the same service."
Arson instead of murder
Benny Barbash, who with his brother, Uri, created "One of Us," "Tironut," ("Basic Training") and recently, "Melah Ha'aretz" ("Salt of the Earth"), all of which deal with life in the army, also says he would like to be free of the obligations, but he understands that "the moment you decide to create a series that portrays the army way of life, there is no other option but to get help from the army."
He understands the IDF spokesman: "The phenomenon of shooting and crying, of killing and suffering, is authentic," he says. "As much as it sometimes arouses scorn and criticism, it's real."
He says that when they created "One of Us," which began as a play in Beit Lessin, they were forced to alter the end of the movie according to the IDF spokesman's demands.
"We could have turned them down, but that would have meant giving up the whole project," says Barbash. And so, while in the original script the protagonists murder a military police investigator, in the movie they just burn a report that he wrote.
When the two brothers went on to create "Melah Ha'aretz," a crime comedy about reserves soldiers who use the army as a cover-up for a robbery, they didn't turn to the army for assistance.
Maybe Barbash would be surprised by what Regev has to say: "Since I've been in this position, I can't remember refusing to support a movie. I'm not for saying 'no.' If I say no, it's only because a movie distorts reality and turns it into a lie."
Regev even says she "would die" to make a movie like "Shtei Etzbaot Mi'Tzidon" ("Ricochets"), which was financed by the IDF, because "movies mold our culture, and it's about time that the IDF went back to being one of the heroes of our culture."
Regev is indeed working enthusiastically on achieving this goal: In the coming weeks, she is supposed to sign a contract with cable and satellite networks for a new channel airing strictly IDF content. Needless to say, this channel will not air any values that run contrary to the IDF Spokesman's Office.