Movies

Out filmmaker Michal Vinik on her teen lesbian film “Barash”

Back in February, we told you about the edgy Israeli film Barash. Wanting to know more, we reached out to the film’s out writer/director, Michal Vinik. She was kind enough to chat with us about all things Barash, including her choice to cast queer leads, why the film isn’t about coming out and how she didn’t intentionally write a love story.

Warning: Spoilers ahead

AfterEllen.com: What was it about the themes you explored in this film that captivated you so much to begin with?

Michal Vinik: It begins even earlier. My shorts were about young women discovering their sexuality in an Israeli context. Always in an Israeli context. That’s what I talked about from the beginning, because this is my life basically. And so when I went into writing the feature film, I just did the same thing.

AE: Aside from Naama discovering she likes girls, we also see her sister running off to be with a man and expressing her sexuality that way. So it definitely seems like a film about female sexuality in general.

MV: I think almost every sexuality is different. I don’t know what the normal sexuality is. I don’t think there is something like that. I love boys and girls. I don’t know what normal is. So for me, it was just like an experiment trying to see what happens when two sisters have different concepts of love.

AE: What got me right away about your film was how edgy the lives of these young women were. Is that typical of Israeli cinema, or are we in the West just not used to seeing this type of Israeli film?

MV: When I started writing the film, I had this feeling that I can’t find myself on screen because the girls that I saw on screen, the young girls, they had different lives than me and my friends. So actually I just wrote our lives, basically. And when we shot the film, we didn’t have a lot of budget. So we shot in real parties. Not for the film—real parties in Tel Aviv. So I don’t know about Israeli cinema. I can tell you that in Israeli life, it’s totally reasonable.

AE: Naama and Dana [Hershko] are quite different in terms of personality. What is it about each girl that attracts the other?

MV: The only way for [Naama] to open the door to the lesbian world is through a character like Hershko, which is extreme and offers a new world and a new meaning and a new life. And it comes with a heavy price, but I think that’s what growing up is about.

AE: And for Dana? What do you think she sees in Naama?

MV: I don’t know actually. I don’t really have an answer to that question. For her, it doesn’t have the same weight. She already did stuff. For her, it’s a girl in school that you can turn her head and see what happens. It’s not really a love story. Not from her end. I don’t think Hershko would say this is a love story.

AE: Watching it, though, I definitely felt there was something between the two of them. But I can see where you’re coming from.

MV: It’s a small town, so it’s like the only queer girl around. But in the script, Hershko was not in love at all with Naama. And when we cast the girls, they had this chemistry and something happened. It became more of a love story. In the script, it was really heartbreaking because Naama didn’t see the reality from the beginning. But I like to—they’re not actresses, and I like to use the people that I work with to see what happens.

Something developed. Something that I can’t even put in words because I didn’t write it. It just happened between them, which was really nice. They have a very funny relationship until now.

AE: I have to ask: why do they have a “funny relationship”?

MV: Because it’s not similar to the film, but it has some things from it. And when they travel together to festivals, and I watch it, I don’t know, I laugh. Because now I know why I cast them. There’s something real there.

AE: Staying with them, your two main characters are indeed not portrayed by industry actors. So what do they do? Where’d you get them from?

MV: I was actually riding my bike, and I saw [Jade Sakori] with her girlfriend. And she’s somebody who you can’t miss. So I circled them with my bike for a long time. And then it was looking a bit weird, maybe, and I approached them, and I asked them and they were really nice, but really suspicious because I had been following them for a long time. And she agreed to come to an audition. The main character, Sivan [Noam Shimon], she was in some kind of an agency, but not for actors.

AE: After they get involved, it seems Naama suddenly can see how other women are attractive too. When developing this character, did you imagine Naama as being completely clueless to her attraction to women before meeting Dana? Would she have gotten to that realization anyway if she hadn’t met Dana?

MV: I don’t know. It’s a philosophical question. You are asking a big, big question about life. I don’t know if I would be into girls if I hadn’t met my ex, ex, ex, ex-girlfriend. I don’t know. So I don’t know about her too. And also, it’s a very early age. It’s an age where you explore if you’re lucky.

AE: But you didn’t write her as a character that already knew that about herself, right? Because some people know it and just don’t act it on.

MV: No, she didn’t know. Although she looks a bit gay. But she’s from a small town. They are gay, by the way, both of them.

AE: Both of the actors? Even better.

MV: Yeah, I insisted on that. Because I was a bit fed up of seeing all the straight girls kiss. I thought it would be interesting to see the real thing.

AE: How important was it for you to find the balance between being “careless” and being “caring” for these characters? Because while they both do a lot of careless things—most of that typical of teenagers—they’re also adorable around each other.

MV: When I write and direct, I always try to find the version that the person tells themself. Because all of us, we have excuses for being sometimes not caring. We have our narratives that we tell ourselves to feel good about ourselves. And so when I write and direct, I’m always interested in the narratives of the character. For example, Hershko, I always would ask myself, “How would she tell this story and not feel bad with herself? What would she say?”

The big antagonist of the film is not her. I think it’s the father. I had trouble with him in the writing process. I tried to understand him also. So I try to make characters that people can relate to and then they can do whatever they want. Because they’re human and we’re not really always caring towards each other.

AE: This story veers from a lot of “young lesbian love” films in that Dana already has had at least one other relationship with a woman and is certain of her attraction for women. Why was that a facet of her backstory that you felt was important to include?

MV: I think Hershko is a character that doesn’t have a lot of doubts. It’s not only regarding her sexuality. When I understood that, I knew whom I should cast. Because it’s a thing about people—there are people who don’t have a lot of doubts and it’s easier for them sometimes with issues like sexuality. She feels comfortable in her place and her sexuality and her body. And that’s the main difference between her and Naama. Naama is somebody totally different. She has a lot of doubts, almost about anything.

AE: You don’t always see confidence like Dana’s in movies.

MV: I know, I know. And one of the things that was very important for me is not to deal with—it’s not a coming out of the closet story. It’s not about that. It was never about that. I didn’t have a closet. For me, it’s not material that is interesting. I speak for myself, but I feel it’s a melodramatic genre that will be gone soon. Hopefully.

I know 17-year-old girls that are very sure of this. They have other doubts, but sexuality, if it’s an issue, it’s not an inner conflict.

AE: Why is it that Dana, who is so confident when it comes to her outward appearance and her sexuality, can be so easily manipulated by her ex and just self-destructive in general?

MV: I think we’re all human, so we all have sides. If you look at people in different locations and different relationships, you discover really surprising things.

AE: Do you think that Naama’s sister being gone and therefore Naama not having her parents’ full attention was actually a good thing for her as a lot of that time was spent coming to terms with her sexuality?

MV: It’s not a coincidence that it happened when her sister was away. Her sister is a character that lives in the same room with her, and her parents don’t know anything about those two. It’s an age where parents do not really know their kids.

AE: I read in connection with this film that a Jewish woman running off with an Arab man, as Naama’s sister did, is more controversial than a woman being with another woman in Israel. Is that true?

MV: I think yes. Right now, in Israel, I think it’s easier to be a lesbian than to marry an Arab.

AE: How’s the film been received in Israel and elsewhere in the world?

MV: I can talk mainly about the world, because in Israel it was in a festival and it’s going to be released in June. So it’s really exciting. Around the world, the reactions are very good. It’s going to a lot of festivals, and the main actresses are flying a lot. There’s a distributor in Germany, in England, and in the U.S.

AE: Are you planning to tackle more projects with LGBT themes?

MV: I don’t know. My next project doesn’t have anything to do with that, but I don’t really think a gay person can write anything that doesn’t have an angle on things.

The third [film], which is already in development, is about a gay mom. It’s not about that. It’s about a mom—her son is 18 and is about to go to the army, and she doesn’t want him to go. So it’s about motherhood. But she’s a lesbian.

AE: Both these films, they’re set in Israel? That’s important to you, right?

MV: It’s not only important, it’s the only thing I know.

AE: Well you wouldn’t be the first filmmaker to work on something they didn’t know.

MV: I can direct something like that. But writing? You need to be very sincere. And so when I write, I just write about what I know right now. Maybe it will be different in the future because I will have a lot of experience.

Barash plays at the MiFo LGBT Film Festival in Miami Beach on April 28. Check with your local LGBT film festival to find out when it’ll be playing near you.

Lesbian Apparel and Accessories Gay All Day sweatshirt -- AE exclusive

Related Articles

Leave a Reply

Back to top button