Deborah Sontag has an interview with Julian Schnabel in today’s New York Times about Miral. The piece covers much of the same territory that has already been discussed in past interviews, but there were some more snippets on his time in Israel/Palestine shooting the film.
Q. Did you have any pressure on this film from the Israeli government or the Palestinian Authority?
A. Not really. I lost a location. I was looking for a prison. There was a location man who sent a version of the script to somebody from the I.D.F. [the Israeli Defense Forces]. The guy wrote back to me and said, “Helping you to make this movie would be like helping Hitler make a movie out of ‘Mein Kampf.’ ” I didn’t answer him.
Schnabel also gives some more details on travelling through Ben Gurion Airport with Rula Jebreal, an experience which certainly left an impression on him:
Q. Was that the first time you had been there?
A. No. I had a show in the Israel Museum in 1987, when Teddy Kollek was mayor. My mother had been saying, “Go to Israel — you’re going to get that special feeling,” from the time I had my bar mitzvah. It’s something I didn’t want to do. I didn’t want to be like everybody else. Art was my religion. But eventually, I thought, “O.K., I owe this to my mom,” and I organized that show.
Q. And did you feel that special something?
A. I did feel something. But later I went back to Israel with Rula, and the interrogator at the airport said, “Uh, what’s your relationship?” I said, “She’s my girlfriend.” He said, “Well, how many times do you see her a week?” I said, “How many times a week do you see your girlfriend?” He said, “Come with us.” I don’t think that was the special feeling my mother was talking about.
There is also this interesting tidbit from a interview today with Reuters:
Q. Why don’t many American filmmakers tackle this topic?
A. “Most directors probably need the job. And don’t want to get blackballed. People don’t want to get fired for supporting something that might not be popular. Personally, I don’t need to get hired. I don’t care. I am not looking for a job. If people don’t want to make any more movies with me, it’s fine. I don’t even know that I am going to make another movie.”
“So people say, don’t buy the guy’s paintings cause he made this movie? I don’t think that will happen.”
