Actors Revisit October 7th Trauma for New Film
Translated & summarized from Walla by baba
Actors Live Lev Levin, Seon Mungoza, and Kim Or Azulai discuss their experiences portraying characters affected by the October 7th Hamas attack in Avi Nesher's new film, "Our Loves." The actors describe how preparing for their roles involved confronting personal and collective trauma, with some being abroad during the attack and others drawing on family histories of displacement. Filming was often interrupted by real-world events, including air raid sirens, and the actors found solace and healing through conversations on set.
The story in 6 lines · by baba
- Actors Live Lev Levin, Seon Mungoza, and Kim Or Azulai star in Avi Nesher's new film "Our Loves" about October 7th.
- Lev Levin was in Paris on October 7th and had to watch graphic videos to prepare for his role.
- Mungoza, a refugee from Congo, connected the film's themes to his family's history and the displacement of Israelis.
- Azulai, a new mother, saw her role as a tribute to the victims of the Nova festival massacre.
- Filming was often interrupted by real-world events, including air raid sirens.
- Actors found on-set conversations helped them process trauma and portray their characters authentically.
The upcoming film "Our Loves" by director Avi Nesher centers on characters whose lives are irrevocably altered by the events of October 7th. For actors Live Lev Levin, Seon Mungoza, and Kim Or Azulai, portraying these roles meant confronting the real-life trauma of that day.
Live Lev Levin, who plays a former religious man who became a drug dealer at the Nova party, was in Paris on October 7th. He recounts receiving a flood of messages about the unfolding events, initially struggling to grasp the severity. He describes the initial sympathy from strangers in Paris quickly fading, replaced by victim-blaming sentiments. To prepare for his role, Levin had to watch graphic videos of the massacre, a process he found deeply challenging but necessary to connect with the character's experience of fleeing and hiding from Hamas terrorists.
Seon Mungoza portrays Avna, a young police officer whose character was adapted to reflect his own life story as a refugee from Congo who arrived in Israel with his family. The events of October 7th brought back personal family traumas related to war and displacement. Mungoza found himself deeply involved in community support for evacuees from the Gaza border communities, teaching acting to children and managing a club for displaced youth. He reflects on how the film's narrative about a refugee resonated with the experience of Israelis becoming refugees within their own country.
Kim Or Azulai, a new mother, was in bed when the October 7th alarms sounded. She found portraying a young woman who went to the Nova festival to dance and ended up in a battlefield to be a moving tribute to the victims. She expressed gratitude to Nesher for casting her in the role.
The filming process itself was often blurred with reality. Lev Levin described filming scenes of hiding under rubble while extras dressed as Hamas terrorists walked by, and the proximity to ongoing artillery fire towards Gaza. Mungoza noted that during filming, air raid sirens sounded because Israel had attacked Iran, causing panic among extras dressed for a festival scene, leading to an evacuation. The actors found that the shared experience and deep conversations on set helped them process the trauma and bring authenticity to their performances.
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