Yuval Hadadi says his feature "15 Years" began with a casual conversation with a friend about the film "Weekend." While discussing what might have happened if those characters had become a couple, he suggested imagining them 15 years into the relationship, and his friend told him to write it as a script. That idea grew into Hadadi's first film.
Writing took about three years, and the story changed significantly from the first draft to the filmed version, though the core remained the same: a study of two men whose desires shift over time and how they cope. As he wrote, the film sharpened around internalized homophobia, abandonment fears, how couples grow together and apart over the years, and the question of family expansion for gay couples.
Hadadi, who had not studied film in Israel and knew little about production, sent the script to film friends and held table reads with actors to develop both the story and his industry contacts. Director Erez Laufer connected him with producer Shalom Goodman, who read the script, met him, and agreed to work together. Hadadi credits Goodman’s patience, knowledge, and passion for helping him make the film despite his lack of formal training. Working from a theater background, he says rehearsals with Ruti Asarsay, Oudi Peresi, and Oded Leopold were intense and often loud, but their input forced him to justify every line and cut anything he could not defend.
He remembers the first shoot day in Jaffa, riding there by bicycle at 5 a.m. and arriving overwhelmed by the trucks, crew, and noise. Goodman calmed him, and Hadadi says the set stayed calm thanks to a strong team, including cinematographer Yaniv Linton. He and Linton prepared carefully for budget and schedule limits, which left room for last-minute changes. In editing, Tal Sheffi, who had also joined early script reads, showed him how much power the cut has, rearranging scenes and creating emotional rhythms he had not imagined.
The first public screening, as the opening film of the Tel Aviv LGBT Film Festival at the Cinematheque, left him highly anxious. He watched audience reactions from small test screenings before release, but in a large theater he could not see much, and he panicked when someone left mid-film, only to return moments later. He was also surprised when a straight friend strongly identified with the lead character and when another viewer said the sex scenes were too harsh. At a Q&A, one audience member objected that the film portrayed the community negatively because it did not end in a classic happy ending, which Hadadi welcomed as a useful discussion about expectations and self-image. He says the film was also a way to understand himself, with the protagonist Yotam serving as an exaggerated version of his own flaws and wounds.
Hadadi says the experience did not necessarily change him as a filmmaker, but after completing his second film, "A Man Walks Down the Street," which is due in Israeli cinemas in the coming year, he feels more honest, open, and sensitive. He no longer worries about what others will think, and he believes that freedom allows him to tell more complex and deeper stories. The second film is now on an impressive international festival run, has been selected for nine festivals worldwide, won Best Feature at the Austin Film Festival, Audience Award and second place from the jury at the Miami LGBT Film Festival, was named to MovieMaker's 25 most promising screenwriters of 2026, and has recently been sold for U.S. distribution. It is also currently competing for Ophir Awards.
