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Interview: Eran Riklis

'I have a conscience but don’t call me political'

February 17, 2011 11:04
Eran Riklis: “a duty to observe”

By

Jessica Elgot,

Jessica Elgot

4 min read

Eran Riklis bristles when he is described as "political". But the Israeli filmmaker says it is a label he has had to accept, albeit with trepidation. "The word political is complicated. I used to say my films were not political, and people would smile and say 'Oh OK'."

Riklis, 56, first received worldwide attention for his 2008 film Lemon Tree, about a Palestinian widow whose lemon grove is set to be demolished to make way for the house of an Israeli security minister. Surely Israeli films do not get more political than that?

Riklis agrees. "So OK, if they are political, then I think they are democratic and I hope that I don't preach. I have my points of view, but I try to show the whole picture. Honesty is what it's all about. Show the good and the bad and let the audience decide. I'm happy if they just reflect on the issue."

His latest film The Human Resources Manager, which won five "Ophrirs" (the Israeli equivalent of the Oscars) examines the attitudes of Israelis to "invisible" foreign workers. An adaption of an AB Yehoshua novel, it tells the story of an unhappy HR man at Jerusalem's largest bakery who discovers a Romanian employee has been killed in a suicide bombing. His office sends him to Romania with the woman's body to make amends with her family.