Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/629850
42 P E R S P E C T I V E | M A R C H / A P R I L 2 0 1 6 Fania, a fragile woman, found it hard to adjust to life in Mandate Israel where she and her husband had come to escape the violent anti-Semitism of Europe. Amos emerges from adolescence into maturity in the shadow of his mother's illness and against a backdrop of the final days of the British Mandate and the creation of the State of Israel. Although the film is designed as a legend interlaced with dramatized dream sequences, it is in fact a true story, shifting periodically between harsh reality and flights of fiction. It was imperative, therefore, that its Production Design illustrate the fantasy as well as the reality. The film is not a historical reconstruction of events; rather it shows through the main characters' periodic memory how they experienced the reality of the times. The character of the design arose from the dialogue between me, director Natalie Portman and cinematographer Slawomir Idziak. Architecture and light were the main artistic resources used. A neutral color palette, dark and austere in direct contrast to the vibrant colorfulness typical of Israel awash in light, emphasized the story's grim atmosphere and consequent feeling of alienation. In the design process, a number of books and the Hebrew language itself were used as raw materials to a far greater extent than they actually appear in the story. Words and text are interwoven throughout the entire film as a subtext, forming the connection between People of the Book, the father employed in research of Hebrew texts, and the mother who, through her stories, creates a deep bond with her son. The stories within the interior space evolve into walls enclosing the house's residents, and then into the streets and their own boundaries, a mesh of banners and signs. I chose to use fewer illustrative visuals and A Tale of Love and Darkness is Amos Oz's complex autobiographical novel about his coming-of-age, following a childhood and adolescence alongside his parents' tragic lives in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and various kibbutzim during the 1930s, '40s and '50s. Director and scriptwriter Natalie Portman chose to focus this tale of pre-establishment State-of-Israel Jerusalem on the deep childhood bond forged between Amos and his mother, which wavered between coherent maturity and flights of fantasy. The mother, Previous pages: A conceptual sketch of the Klausner family, drawn by Yaniv Shimoni after a meeting with Amos Oz, illustrates the family's life amidst books. The bedroom, dining room, living room, work area and salon are all in the one area. Amos's father stands in the middle of the room alone. This page, top: Mr. Shimoni's layout of the façade of the Schneller Compound. The functions were allocated according to the following needs (left to right): pharmacy, entrance to an apartment building, post office, entrance to a house, hairdresser and a grocery.