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Something about
starting a film, images, reality and authenticity.
Ingmar Bergman: "A beginning of a film, most of all, is like a brightly
colored thread sticking out of the dark sack of the unconscious. If I
begin to wind up this thread, and do it carefully, a complete film will
emerge".
For me, it was the streets of Bombay who were filling up my subconscious
with colorful threads.
I would see unusual
situations and images, never knowing when they would come my way, but
soon realizing they would influence my life, the way I see and respond
to reality, and the way I would make films.
A recurring theme
in all my films is the perception of reality: The way people apprehend
reality and react to it. Israel is a country over saturated by reality;
not much space is left for imagination. Israelis are reality addicts.
This may account for why almost every young Israeli goes through an escapism
phase once completing his three years army service: a trip to the Far
East, starting in India.
For most Israelis,
India has become part of their conscious; a process one goes through,
shaping one's cognition and self.
'Hypnotic Hell'
- my film, interweaves three different kinds of realities: The one of
the tourist; the one of the Indian people, and finally, while taking a
look at India's own escapism - their huge film industry, creating an utopian
reality on the white screen.
Nothing prepared
me for Bombay. One can tell you what a slap in the face means, but that's
not the same as actually getting one, is it? Everything was unfamiliar
in Bombay. The smell, the colour of the air, the sound, the people, the
language, the sun light, the streets. Everything.
There are quite
a few filmmakers who feel the camera protects them, shielding them from
their subjects. Since I was after an intimate look into the lives and
reality of India, I felt as if the camera was emphasizing me being an
outsider, someone who looks upon, which could easily be seen as criticizing.
And that only added to the feeling of alienation, of culture shock. Culture
shock is a very difficult feeling to describe.
How do you express,
in a visual language, fear, alienation, discomfort? Once I was able to
define the force behind these feelings, I was able to find the Image I
was looking for: 'the Unknown Coming Out of the Dark.'
In my film-making,
and throughout "Hypnotic Hell", there's s a quest for authenticity. As
a tourist in a foreign land one may at first encounter "tourist attractions
& traps": The elephants, the cobra, the fortune tellers. But as one
gets rid of ones fears and inhibitions, one may find oneself in more authentic
situations, becoming an integral part of the place.
The culmination
of the quest for authenticity in 'Hypnotic Hell', is "The girl who Sings".
And when we finally meet her, we know: The quest has come to it's resolution.
This girl is part of the street, the people, the music, but on the other
hand she has to sing for a living, exemplifying the silent cry of the
people of India which the world doesn't hear.
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From the whore houses
of the red zone, via the set of an Indian film on location, to the ship's
grave yard - 
a
hypnotic journey along the streets of Bombay, India, seen through the innocent
eyes of a Westerner, who despite the alienation, finds himself magnetized
by the people and the mesmerizing reality of the streets.