To stay alive without despair, it is necessary to keep making films: Dan Wolman at PIFF

A complex conflict
Addressing the audience, Wolman said, “War, violence and hatred are constant in the world, which can lead to despair. However, for me, to stay alive without falling into despair, it is necessary to constantly keep making films.”

After the session, budding filmmakers gathered around Wolman, trading stories and seeking advice. While they avoided questions on the Israel-Palestine conflict, the subject remains deeply personal for the director.

Wolman described himself as Jewish, secular and an atheist, torn between two opposing realities. One part of him opposes the Occupation and supports a Palestinian state, while another is shaped by the history of Jewish persecution.

“Jews have been massacred, killed and raped during the Crusades, the pogroms, the Spanish inquisition and the Holocaust. Jews have suffered,” he said. “Some of my friends tell me that I am naive in saying that Palestinians should have a state as they want to wipe out Israel,” he added.

Calling the conflict “terrible”, Wolman said he wished that wise people could have addressed and ended it.

View from the margins

Wolman is no stranger to India. Apart from receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award at the International Film Festival of India (IFFI), Goa, in 2018, he has served on juries at several film festivals across the country, from Lucknow to Kochi to Kolkata.

“I know India sometimes better than many Indians. I have been to more cities and not just the big ones,” he told the audience.

He held the audience — which included Seema Biswas, who features in Murder Too Close – Love Too Far — in rapt attention. “I don’t belong to the Bollywood of Israel, ie the mainstream of Israeli cinema. Usually the subjects that I take are not audience pleasers,” he said.

His first feature film, The Dreamer, an official entry at Cannes, is set in an old-age home. Hide and Seek explored a gay love story between an Arab and an Israeli man during Israel’s war of independence.

“I’m trying to make films that I don’t mind making people angry. I want people to focus on a certain subject,” he said. Recalling his film Soldier of the Night, Wolman added, “Some people called me a traitor. Basically, it’s a story of a series of murders that take place in Israel. And the victims are soldiers.”

Over the hour-long session, Wolman discussed practical aspects of independent filmmaking — balancing budgets, navigating film festivals and finding audiences for what he described as his “underground” cinema.

“My advice is to continue making films. If you have made a film that has not found a distributor, lick the wounds, go on and make another one, another one. Maybe, you know, next time I come here when I’m 91 years old, and you’ll have another film,” he told a budding filmmaker.

Artificial or truly talented
Wolman also raised concerns about artificial intelligence in filmmaking. “There is something very dangerous in the fact that you cannot judge anymore if somebody’s really talented or if he used AI,” he said.
“I’m competing now with the screenplay. I’m sending a screenplay to a competition. Somebody used AI and he said I wanted to write a Bergman screenplay and he’s submitting his screenplay and I’m submitting mine and maybe he will win prize or get money to make his film,” Wolman added.

He recalled meeting a filmmaker who had used AI to create a commercial set in Romania. “He said that, instead of going to Romania with his crew and shooting, he decided to do it with AI. It said this is a fantastic commercial that I shot. I thought that he hadn’t gone to Romania, so his experience of the place was not there. He didn’t use any actors. I think the next time he’s not going to be called. AI is going to direct,” Wolman said.