Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/629850
44 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 selected Hebrew fonts instead. The written word Ima (mother) is perhaps the most significant word in the film, and appears on the screen twice: once when Amos is writing it on a blank page, and then again when the letters forming the word appear along the length of a narrow lane, surrounded by political banners. Small, relatively narrow locations were selected to enclose the characters and thus create conflict between them. This decision also changed the brilliant Israeli light to a darker and more dramatic one, giving the local surroundings a European appearance. The locations are all in Israel's two main cities, Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, whose appearance has changed dramatically over the years and does not resemble the film's time frame. Entire streets had to be covered to create a credible visual of street life in the 1940s. The Jerusalem locations form the dominant part of the film and were chosen because their typical Ottoman style embody the spirit of a place which is in complete opposition to the characters' European origins. Jerusalem as a religious and historical capital provides an authentic background to the story, but at the same time it forced the Art Department to work under very difficult conditions. Modern elements had to be removed from walls and set construction was undertaken in busy commercial streets populated by a religious community. At the same time, care had to be taken of the precious elements which needed to be restored. In the movie, Jerusalem looks derelict and impoverished, a maze of narrow, stone streets, buildings covered in tin and wooden scaffolding. The Syrian Orphanage— the Schneller Compound—was selected for the main street. It has an interesting Above, top: A production photograph from the fi lm shows Amos and his father standing in the center of the house amid literally thousands of books placed on purpose-built shelves. Center: A sketch drawn by Amos Oz himself of the original house where he grew up, as he remembers it. Opposite page, top to bottom: A perspective by Set Designer Gali Rosenbaum-Prat of the partition of the house rooms, which illustrates how it is divided according to its functions and according to the original drawing by Amos Oz. The family's kitchen, makeshift and austere. The backyard, accessed from kitchen, with its earth replaced by red clay forming an artifi cial bed where Amos and his father unsuccessfully try to grow vegetables. The fence is built from wood and tin to look as if it's made from stuff collected from the street.