Adrian Turner talks to newcomer directors Aharon Keshales and Navot Papushado about their breakthrough film Rabies, ‘the world’s first Israeli horror.’
Though Israeli arthouse cinema has been going through a renaissance of late, more mainstream genres within their film industry have, for decades, been lacking in innovation. The variety of options has been slim. Countless comedies and melodramas are rolled out, often with the same script used twice in the one year where only the actors are interchangeable. Challenging the audience factors low on the agenda. Enter Rabies and suddenly everyone is frothing at the mouth – whoever heard of an Israeli horror film?
The landmark debut is guaranteed to please genre fans with its relentless and uproarious upheaval of well-known conventions. Rabies casts a critical eye on violence for the sake of violence and draws a clear line between itself and, for example, the latter stages of the Saw franchise. After a hugely successful release in Israel, having taken an alternative route to international distribution, Rabies is picking up momentum on the festival circuit. Distribution rights have been snapped up within the U.S and Canada following the accolade of the critic’s award at the Fantasporta Film Festival in Portugal and inclusion in the official selection at the Tribeca Film Festival.
I caught up with directors Aharon Keshales and Navot Papushado during their stop at the 2011 Edinburgh International Film Festival to discuss the road to success, Atlantic City, Wes Craven and blowing girls up with landmines.
MASTER & APPRENTICE
Aharon cuts an authoritative yet relaxed figure, fitting of any film lecturer from Tel-Aviv University. Navot is a different kettle of fish, lively and talkative, undoubtedly the junior of the pair he is a graduate from Aharon’s class. Teacher and student, master and apprentice, they are horror genre Jedi dabbling in ‘The Dark Side.’
Aharon regales me with the story of his first encounter with Navot, “He was a student in my second year as a Professor and he was a cheeky bastard! In his first lesson he sat with his sunglasses on in my class. I didn’t say anything, but he was so cheeky he didn’t just sit there with them on, he raised his hand and said ‘can I ask you a question?’ and said ‘can I keep my glasses on for the entire class?’” Thus began their partnership – although Navot is adamant that he picked his teacher up in a bar. “Aharon was my most supportive teacher; he was always encouraging me to think outside the box.”
It’s an evident chemistry that translates to their success on screen. They are clear horror junkies and proceed to reference every classic slasher from every corner of the globe as influence for their film: Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday 13th, Scream, The Hills Have Eyes, Oldboy, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Memories of Murder, Severance, Hostel, Saw. There is that air of Quentin Tarantino film-fandom about them. They reference him too. Navot tells me, “When we started, it was out of pure love for the genre” – a good place to start by any means.
The idea for the script arrived during a trip to Atlantic City while the pair were out in the U.S for the premiere of Navot’s graduation film short which was produced by his teacher. “We paid $30 for the bus ride to Atlantic City and when we got there they gave us $20 back to gamble… So we lost the $20, ate burgers at the Hard Rock Café and went to a Tool concert. We smoked cigars on the beach and that’s where we decided to do the first Israeli horror.” I’m assured Navot kept his sunglasses on the whole time.
NEW DECADE, NEW RULES
With the killer in Rabies rendered unconscious and impotent for the duration, his victims become inadvertently responsible for the death toll. It’s a unique twist that gives the film a wry sense of social conscience and self awareness that has been lacking in the genre since films like The House on the Edge of the Park – essentially it’s a dark and twisted allegory about the state of Israel and the harshness of living there amidst endemic corruption and the ongoing conflict. Although rooted in a mainstream market, Aharon and Navot are not afraid to flex their film school muscle.
While crafting its own rules, Rabies does so with a savvy introspection that goes beyond traditional genre confines – most evident in its treatment of death. Each character or victim is given a back-story and a reason to live, Aharon explains, “The real violent thing in Rabies is when you see the outcomes, when you see the minutes after the death. We tried to stretch out the moments after someone dies to achieve an emotional reaction.”
The natural comparison (not entirely due to proximity of release) is Scream 4 – with the two films each extending themselves to do something new for the genre. Navot confesses, “We have a bit of an open rivalry with Wes Craven.” Aharon explains, “No, no, I love him, I love him but I think when you go into Meta you lose it, you lose the audience. You lose the most important thing in film. I can’t relate to a film that is too sinister. With the first 20 minutes of Scream 4 with the film within a film within a film motif, you don’t know when it’s going to stop and I can’t relate to characters when I don’t know what universe they are living on. We wanted to distinguish ourselves from other horror films; with Rabies violence is not just for the act of violence itself. We decided to do a film where nobody could guess the outcome. To do that you can do two things – you could go the snuffy way to contrive various special, elaborate ‘torture-porn’ scenarios with stuff you have never seen before or you can create a misdirection plot; you use conventions and you break the convention. In that way you can tell a different story about slasher films.”
While both films choose a ‘misdirection plot’ they approach it in entirely different ways. Whether you favour Craven or Keshales & Papushado, there are plenty of options left to explore in a new decade of horror. Aharon and Navot might score over Craven because they have crafted a formula, with its own set of rules, which can be easily repeated. They can only hope that it won’t become tiresome any time soon.
THE ISRAELI AUDIENCE
Horror films have never been big hitters in Israel. The audience lives largely on a diet of its nation’s own produce, so big horror films from the U.S, Spain or Korea either don’t screen at all or achieve fairly low figures in the box office. Israel is a nation where, in the 60’s, The Beatles were banned for fear that they might corrupt young minds. Even Cliff Richard represented a societal horror with one of his gigs, in 1963, perceived to have created ‘mass hysteria.’ Modern Israel is a different place; with global communication at an all time high, young Israeli morals are up for grabs. With the buzz and excitement about Rabies having kicked off long before its release Aharon and Navot had little doubt that they had a responsibility to their homeland to drag their nation’s film produce up to par with worldwide pop culture.
Indeed, the current has been turning in Israeli cinema for some time; ‘boureka’ films (comedies and melodramas) gained some international recognition in the 70’s but their influence was killed off by the rise of home video. Since then the pace has been slowly gathering with overseas influence seeping into the culture and room for genre experimentation growing. Finally, the conditions were right for a horror revolution.
They took an alternative route to distribution, as Navot explains, “We decided to go out to the Israeli audience that’s been waiting for 60 years to get the first Israeli horror film before going out on the festival circuit. When the time came to release the film, it was a huge event in Israel with all the newspapers – Aharon even got interviewed for the 8 o’clock news. It was such an event and such a focus on horror films in Israel all of a sudden. It really started a small revolution.”
To be a fly on the wall for the first screenings in Israel would have been a fine thing; an audience completely untested, and who were there first and foremost to see their idols in their latest film – many completely unaware of what to expect. “We were sitting in the audience at the point where Ania Bukstein’s character is blown up by the landmine – that is their hero being killed. They were like ‘are we supposed to laugh because it’s funny but I’m not sure we are allowed to laugh?’ We were sitting in our screenings and we laugh our asses off because it’s funny, a girl is being exploded! There is nothing funnier than when a girl dies (in a movie).”
Rabies has been a local success thanks to the excitement and anticipation that surrounded its release, even landing a spell in the top 5 DVD rentals chart. How do you say long live the revolution in Hebrew?
FROM INCEPTION TO CREATION
It has been a long road to success. From the outset it was always going to be a tall order to bring horror into production in Israel – more than just a good script and cinephile passion. Aharon and Navot were able to pull off the impossible and attract a host of top Israeli A-list talent. Aharon explains, “First we approached the big chubby cop in the car (Lior Ashkenazi) who’s like the Israeli Tom Cruise, after he said yes we approached the ranger (Menashe Noy) who’s a huge comedian and really famous actor in Israel. After we had those two names the rest were phoning us! It was like a snowball effect. I’m in, I’m in, I’m in.” As soon as the script and cast were in place there was a media-frenzy with major outlets in Israel looking for the scoop. Once the story had broken a weight of expectation and pressure was suddenly placed on the pair of rank outsiders to produce the goods. Navot beams, “It became such a high profile film. It was almost 2 years before we had released it and everybody was already talking about Rabies” With the wheels set firmly in motion, momentum had gathered to such a pace that Aharon and Navot’s debut horror film was tearing up the track and cutting a path for the genre in Israel.
The response Aharon and Navot received from their cast was unheard of as they stuck their teeth into the challenge. Navot explains, “We told them, it’s gonna be hard, we’re gonna shoot it in the winter, we’re gonna physically abuse you, we are gonna put blood on you and we are gonna hit you… and they just loved it!” Actors were literally frothing at the mouth to be involved with Rabies. They were all bored with their regular roles and wanted a new challenge, as Navot tells me, “It was their first opportunity to be involved in a horror and find something fresh for themselves…fortunately for us.”
Their good fortune continued into the shoot, which was crammed into 19 days thanks to the low budget. They made use of available light the whole way through and achieved some seriously slick editing as they juggled multiple narratives.
Rabies has been an impressive debut for the Israeli directors. Their film is one of the most fresh and exciting things to happen to the genre for quite some time and they can only hope that it will only lead to greater things for horror film. For now though, the pair will attempt to repeat the formula for themselves. “We are in the middle of writing a script that will play with the conventions of kidnap thrillers and revenge thrillers. We are gonna take it and rape the shit out of it!”
With the excitement of ‘the world’s first ever Israeli horror’ having all but dissipated in their homeland, Aharon and Navot will be relying on their undoubted talents to extend their success. Finding actors will not be a problem and they will no doubt benefit from a healthier budget.
Navot sums up their experience, “We started a buzz, first we started because we wanted to do our own thing – now we have been labelled as pioneers we feel like we have a responsibility. We enjoy it; it’s a burden worth carrying.” Thanks to Rabies, Aharon and Navot may have unleashed a horror epidemic of their own design. Here’s hoping the fever catches on.
Rabies will screen at the FILM4’s FrightFest on the 26th and 28th of August, catch it before it catches you.
adrianpaulturner.com 