Sharon Bar-Ziv on How 'Room 514' Became His Breakthrough Film

In the latest installment of Serugim’s filmmaker interview series, director Sharon Bar-Ziv reflected on the making of his debut feature, "Room 514." Bar-Ziv said he was already over 40 when he finally made the film, after starting out very young as an actor in "The Summer of ‘68," where director Renen Schorr told him he was the heir to Uri Zohar.

He wrote, directed, and produced the film himself. Bar-Ziv said the idea came while he was sitting on a yellow sofa at home and watching a television interview with a staff sergeant, which inspired the story. He wrote the first draft in three months, then submitted the project to funding bodies and received rejections. The turning point came when the late Ktziot Shchori, whom he described as legendary, personally granted him a 70,000-shekel development award that was normally reserved for the fund’s director.

"Room 514" was shot in just four days, entirely in one room, on a budget of 70,000 shekels. Bar-Ziv said the film later surprised him by reaching the Cannes Film Festival, premiering in Rotterdam, winning a directing prize at Tribeca, and screening at 35 major festivals worldwide, where it also won awards.

He said the actors immediately understood the characters’ passion and conviction, and praised editor Shira Arad for shaping the film’s cinematic language. Bar-Ziv recalled showing a rough cut to a professor who told him, "This is not how you make cinema," a reaction he later saw as confirmation he was on the right path. The film, he said, was meant to show that reality is not black and white and that life is full of duality. He added that the project changed him personally as well as professionally, and that its success gave him confidence in his own inner voice.