Sharon Amrani was 31 years old at the time of his death by drowning on the shores of Tel Aviv on September 10, 2001. A graduate of The Sam Spiegel Film & Television School – Jerusalem in 1998, the young filmmaker had yet to direct his first full-length feature. Amrani’s life, full of hopes, dreams, dilemmas and aspirations, was a story arc cut just as it was beginning, there is no way of knowing how this narrative would have developed. Yet his distinctive voice as a filmmaker is present in his early projects, and The Sam Spiegel Film & Television School – Jerusalem commemorates the 15th anniversary of Amrani’s untimely death with a DVD of his collected works, including student films, his first post-graduation projects, notes for future films, and Sharon Amrani: Remember His Name, a documentary by Yair Raveh.
Mother Marries Avram (1996) burns with the intensity of adolescent fury, love, loss, and confusion. Amrani encompasses so much feeling in this 12-minute short created in his second year at Sam Spiegel. Yossi, a young teen in his rumpled blue school shirt, is the wounded observer and reluctant participant in preparations for his mother’s wedding to Avram, owner of a watermelon stand. The intimate dyad of mother and son, alone together for years, since Yossi’s father’s death, has been ruptured, as Yossi’s accusing gaze makes clear. A lifetime of information is conveyed in moments, as his mother tries to cajole him into participating by re-creating the closeness of a childhood guessing game. The soft caress of her voice, her teasing manner as she dangles a streamer from the Sukkah just out of reach, make it easy to understand why Yossi feels displaced by his mother’s future husband. Until now, Yossi and his mother have been a pair, a couple of sorts; now everything is about to change. The empty lots and dirt paths between food stalls and the forlorn window of the bridal shop tell volumes about Yossi’s neighborhood, while the palm fronds and fading decorations tell of his background and traditions, and the makeshift tin can drum set suggests his dreams. There is a brief, lovely sequence as he walks along towards the bridal shop, with a bounce in his step. A girl standing at a food stall sees him and joins in, and the two skip side by side, in the light-hearted rhythm of childhood. Although Yossi is no longer a child, he is far from being an adult, and not yet really a teenager; hovering on the edge of change, always in motion. Etti Ankri’s original music is the perfect soundtrack to this striking short.
Bonfire Night (1998), was Sharon Amrani’s graduation project at Sam Speigel, for which he tied with fellow classmate Nir Bergman’s Seahorses for first prize. Ehud Banai composed the music for this film, which takes a sensitive and perceptive look at issues of faith and observance, the conflict between family ties of love and responsibility, and the desires and happiness of the individual. The film focuses on Morris, the oldest son of a traditional Jewish family, who has a mental disability. This does not prevent him from enthusiastically savoring life, and the film opens as Morris stands, riding on his father’s horse and cart, smiling and shouting to all: “My brother’s getting married today.” What Morris does not know, is that his brother Benny, wary of Morris’s tendency to lose control and make a scene, held his wedding a month previously, without Morris. The conflicts between Benny and his father, over religious observance and over the best way to deal with, and support Morris, form the film’s plot, yet Morris is always at center stage. The film really stands out in its precise and affectionate portrayal of Morris, as an individual with feelings, thoughts and agency. As in Mother Marries Avram, Amrani’s gaze is always open to moments of humor and beauty. When his younger sister chats with a friend on the phone, comparing grades, the ever-lively Morris chimes in, asking the other girl ‘How much did you get in Talmud? …I got an F….and how much in Sex Ed?’ Morris is unpredictable, outrageous, and not easy to live with, yet utterly charming, and certainly invites one’s empathy with his struggles.
Sharon Amrani’s short films are powerfully striking, no less so, the detailed notes and treatment for future projects included in this collection. Always engaging with issues of family, religion, tradition and the conflicting desire to belong and break away, Amrani planned a four-part series structured around four central life-events in Jewish culture: circumcision, Bar Mitzvah, wedding and funeral. Reading his notes on the story of a devout almost-twelve-year-old girl who must watch her father prepare her older brother for his Bar Mitzvah, while she is relegated to the sidelines in every way, it is painful to contemplate this talent that will never be fully realized. Amrani’s insight into the feelings of a young girl, his ability to create a character full of longing, spark, and compassion, is astonishing. The story he wove for this character sounds a chord of authenticity, and inspires with its warmth. Sharon Amrani – may his memory be blessed, and may his work continue to inspire others.
The DVD of Sharon Amrani’s collected works will be available at The Third Ear. Mother Marries Avram and Bonfire Night are in Hebrew with subtitles in English, all other content is in Hebrew.
