Thursday, 28 April 2022 - 00:15
Yair Qedar (2021)
Documentary, 86 min, Israel
PARTNERSHIP WITH
BLUE METROPOLIS INTERNATIONAL LITERARY FESTIVAL
V.O. Hebrew, S.T. English
Behind the international success story of Amos Oz, a symbol of the Israeli conscience and a writer translated into 45 languages, lurked a double tragedy. When he was 12-years-old his mother committed suicide, and a few years before his death his daughter accused him of being physically and mentally violent, ending all communication with him. A series of conversations with his latest biographer presented in the film, weaves biographical passages, literature and conversations with the main people in his life, as Amos Oz tells his last story.
BIOGRAPHY
Amos Oz, born May 4, 1939 in Jerusalem and died December 28, 2018 in Tel Aviv, is an Israeli poet, novelist and essayist. He is professor of literature at Ben-Gurion University in Beer-Sheva. Amos Oz is the co-founder of the Peace Now movement and a staunch supporter of a dual state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
AWARDS and HONORS
- 1965: Kugel Prize literary award from Municipality of Holon
- 1976: Brenner Prize
- 1983: Bernstein Prize (original Hebrew novel category) for A Perfect Peace
- 1984: Made an Officier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in France
- 1986: Bialik Prize for literature (jointly with Yitzhak Orpaz)
- 1988: French Prix Femina étranger
- 1992: Friedenspreis des Deutschen Buchhandels
- 1997: Named to the French Legion of Honour
- 1998: Israel Prize for literature
- 2004: Welt-Literaturpreis from the German newspaper Die Welt
- 2004: Ovid Prize from the city of Neptun, Romania
- 2005: Goethe Prize from the city of Frankfurt, Germany for his life’s work
- 2006: Jerusalem-Agnon Prize
- 2006: Corine Literature Prize (Germany)
- 2007: Prince of Asturias Award in Literature (Spain)
- 2007: A Tale of Love and Darkness named one of the ten most important books since the creation of the State of Israel
- 2008: German President’s High Honor Award
- 2008: Primo Levi Prize (Italy)
- 2008: Heinrich Heine Prize of Düsseldorf, Germany
- 2008: Tel Aviv University’s Dan David Prize (“Past Category”) (jointly with Atom Egoyan and Tom Stoppard), for Creative Rendering of the Past
- 2008: Foreign Policy/Prospect list of 100 top public intellectuals
- 2013: Franz Kafka Prize
- 2014: Order of Civil Merit
- 2014: Siegfried Lenz Prize, granted by the City of Hamburg
- 2015: World premiere of the film A Tale of Love and Darkness, based on Amos Oz’s autobiographical novel, takes place at the Cannes international film festival. The film is directed and co-written by Natalie Portman, who also stars as Oz’s mother, with Amir Tessler playing Oz
- 2015: Internationaler Literaturpreis – Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Germany, winner for Judas
- 2015: Honorary degree by the University of Milan (in Language and cultures for communication and international cooperation)
- 2015: Park Kyong-ni Prize, a South Korean award valued at $100,000
- 2018: Stig Dagerman Prize, Sweden (for Judas)
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Non-fiction
- – In the Land of Israel (essays on political issues)
- – Israel, Palestine and Peace: Essays (1995)
- – Under This Blazing Light (1995)
- – Israeli Literature: a Case of Reality Reflecting Fiction (1985)
- – The Slopes of Lebanon (1989)
- – The Story Begins: Essays on Literature (1999)
- – A Tale of Love and Darkness (2002)
- – How to Cure a Fanatic (2006)
- – Jews and Words (2012)
- – Dear Zealots: Letters from a Divided Land (2017)
- – What’s in an Apple: Conversations with Shira Hadad (2018)
Fiction
- – Where the Jackals Howl (1965)
- – Elsewhere, Perhaps (1966)
- – My Michael (1968)
- – Unto Death (1971)
- – Touch the Water, Touch the Wind (1973)
- – The Hill of Evil Counsel (1976)
- – Soumchi (1978)
- – A Perfect Peace (1982)
- – Black Box (1987)
- – To Know a Woman (1989)
- – Fima (1991)
- – Don’t Call It Night (1994)
- – Panther in the Basement (1995)
- – The Same Sea (1999)
- – The Silence of Heaven: Agnon’s Fear of God (2000)
- – Suddenly in the Depth of the Forest (A Fable for all ages) (2005)
- – Rhyming Life and Death (2007)
- – Scenes from Village Life (2009)
- – Between Friends (2012)
- – Judas (2014)
PRESS REVIEW
Lives of Amos Oz, A. B. Yehoshua illuminated in new films
The Jerusalem Post 2020