Shikun: Amos Gitai’s new Behind Closed Doors with Irene Jacob can be seen in theaters today

Three years after Laila in Haifa, director Amos Gitai returns with Shikun, premiering at the 2024 Berlin Film Festival.

The film is inspired by Eugene Ionesco’s play.Rhinocerosand places the story in present-day Israel. Shikun tells the story of the rise of intolerance and totalitarian thinking through a series of daily episodes that take place in a single building in Israel, Shikun.

In this hybrid group of people of different origins and languages, some are transformed into rhinoceroses, while others resist. An ironic metaphor for life in our modern societies.

Film in several languages

The feature film is directed by Irene Jacob, Yael Abkasis, Bahira Ablas, Hannah Laszlo and Naama Preis. Several languages ​​are used for the purposes of the film, including Hebrew and Arabic.

For those who do not speak these languages, it can be difficult to know which one is used. This is a deliberate choice on the part of Amos Gitai, who explains in the press kit: “I didn’t want the subtitles to help differentiate them, for example by using two colors, as they often do. It obviously makes a difference to those who know these languages ​​and others, this situation is also interesting. The uncertainty for those who don’t come from the region, who don’t know the languages, is part of the proposition of the film. Of course I don’t want to be didactic.“

Semi-closed chamber

Shikun belongs to a group of films that Amos Gitai shot in a semi-closed camera (Tram in Jerusalem, Laila in Haifa, The House, etc.). They are all located in a completely enclosed space, but outside. Director says: “Each time it’s a microcosm study project with the ambition that it disrupts a more general truth. It’s a bit like the study of a cell, the representation and information of a whole living body.”

“This unity of place and time implies a rather radical formal choice that regulates circulation and makes visible the forces that concentrate and oppose each other. One staging choice is obviously to use a shot sequence – which I had. Anna went to the extreme for Arabia, shot in one shot. But the exact answers are different every time, Shikun’s shots are not the same as in my other films, nor is the editing.”

Movie born before October 7

The film was born in the context of what happened in Israel before October 7. Israelis have been in the midst of protests against Netanyahu and his government’s efforts to reform the legal system.

These large demonstrations brought together feminist groups, soldiers, academics, economists, people who campaign for peaceful coexistence between Palestinians and Israelis, and a large part of civil society. Amos Gitai recalls:

A movement that also had the significance of a reaction to the rise of a form of conformism in Israeli society, the disappearance of critical thinking. It was in this context that I read Ionesco’s play, The Rhinoceros, written at the end of the play. The 1950s as an anti-totalitarian parable that seemed to me to echo what we were going through. I saw in it the possibility of inspiration to make a film about the present that we are experiencing. At that time I was rehearsing on stage in Tel Aviv. House version, a play inspired by my 1980 film.

The whole cast was there, including Irene Yacob and Palestinian actress Bahira Ablas. In parallel with the work on the play, we were involved in this project together, which I wrote quite quickly. I called the cinematographer Eric Gauthier, with whom I had worked for twelve years on four of my previous films, and he came right away. We were able to assemble the material and shoot immediately, and thanks to the cooperation of the producers, technicians and artists with whom I have this long association and friendship.”

Shikun – which means “social housing” in Hebrew – can be seen in cinemas from this Wednesday, March 6.