Los Angeles Journal


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2008-05-02

by John Esther

Interview: Ayelet Zurer

Summary

Israeli actor picks up Fugitive Pieces

Article

In writer-director Jeremy Podeswa’s screen adaptation of Anne Micheals’ novel, Fugitive Pieces, Ayelet Zurer’s character, Michaela, briefly appears near the end of the film yet her character instills a feeling of transcendence on the viewer.

Michaela is the second saving grace in the life of Jakob Beers (Stephen Dillane), a man still scarred by the personal tragedies he witnessed as a young boy (Robbie Kay) during World War II. Jakob’s first saving grace was Athos (Rade Serbedzija), a Greek archaeologist who excavated then preserved Jakob through the bitter years. Athos and Jakob are close and dear yet only when Jakob meets Michaela can he come to terms with those tumultuous emotions he has been living with since the destruction of his childhood family.

A small but significant role for the Israeli actor Zurer, Fugitive Pieces will be one of possibly four films of hers to be released in the United States this year. The first one was Vantage Point, where she played a mysterious woman with international ties. Later this year director Jeff Balsmeyer’s Longshot and director Paul Schrader’s Adam Resurrected are set to showcase Zurer’s talents.

In this exclusive interview we spoke to Zurer about the film, violence, propaganda and more.

Los Angeles Journal: Why did you want to make Fugitive Pieces?
Ayelet Zurer: I found it touching and beautiful and profound and unique in a fashion you only see in classical writing. Then I ran and bought the book and fell in love with it.

LAJ: What do you think you have in common with your character?
AZ: That’s a hard question because she’s very high up there in the people rank [Laughs]. I can understand where she’s coming from, I guess. She saw many things in life. She is, not like me, very educated in history and art and she is able to accept other people as they are. She’s a much better person than I am [Laughs].

LAJ: Why do you say that?
AZ: Because she is [Laughs}. She’s just more complete in a way. She is less judgmental. I feel like she’s fearless. I was always laughing at my character. Everybody in the film was afflicted by pain and she probably never had any, although she’s seen life and seen the world because she’s traveled, but she was not hurt and therefore not scarred and therefore fearless.

LAJ: Considering her name and the author’s name, do you think she is perhaps the alter ego of the author?
AZ: I would assume so. I didn’t ask her.

LAJ: Jakob Beers is trying to get over the violence he witnessed as a kid. As someone who grew up in Israel you might have seen your share of violence. How have you overcome those encounters with violence?
AZ: I was lucky enough not to have the same kind of misfortunes. I never lost anybody to war or any kind of violent act. He did, however, at a very young age. I think about my son having to go through that kind of thing and my heart is crushing. I saw violence. I lived in a very intense environment, but in a different way.

LAJ: These conflicts will create what Jakob is going through down the line.
AZ: Oh, always. Conflicts and wars bring more conflict and more war. That’s how it is.

LAJ: How will Fugitive Pieces address the issue of how war lingers on?
AZ: I don’t think films change the world. They represent the period of the time where they are made in more than changing something. I am not hopeful that way.

LAJ: You do not see films in any way as influential on people’s behaviors?
AZ: I wish I could say, yes, but I truly don’t believe any film that I saw really changed the way I think. Well, influence me maybe in the way I think, but never changed the way I do things. Unless films like Hotel Rwanda. I was not aware of what happened there (to the extent) until I saw that film. It does serve a certain knowledge but I don’t know if it changes the world.

LAJ: If films could do that than they could be used as negative means, propaganda. Not to make the world better, but rather worse.
AZ: Propaganda is different. Propaganda works, doesn’t it? You can see it everywhere in politics. In the past and in the future you will see it.

LAJ: Do you see a line between propaganda and film?
AZ: Sometimes no [Laughs].

LAJ: Then film must influence us in some ways.
AZ: In some ways, but I don’t know if it changes. Particularly with this film, it talks about the past. It begins during the Second World War and so I’m thinking, “Okay, that’s done.” So the only way it can influence someone is by lifting its spirit or thinking, “What a small deed towards someone’s soul can do. If you can save one soul then maybe you should do it.” That’s maybe the only way I can really see it making a difference, but this movie is also about love and it’s a inspiring one more than a life changing one.

LAJ: Here we are 60 years after World War II yet film constantly refers back to that time in terms of the massacres and the genocide. Yet there have been over 50 genocides worldwide since the end of World War II. Why do we keep referring back to that one?
AZ: Somehow it’s the last more universal trauma we went through. It was a very long one. So many died in it that had nothing to do with war. It wasn’t really about the politics anymore; it was about homicide. But you can see films about Africa, Sarajevo and, after San Francisco, you might see films about China [laughs].

LAJ: What can you tell us about your upcoming film, Adam’s Resurrection?
AZ: [Laughs]. It’s directed by Paul Schrader and stars Jeff Goldblum. I play a nurse in an asylum falling in love with Jeff Goldblum’s character who use to be a clown in a circus and becomes a dog in a camp. He entertains the Gestapo by acting like a dog. I’m playing a nurse many years later and will do anything to be with him, including playing a dog, too. She’s a more disturbed person than he is.

LAJ: What do you do when you are not working?
AZ: I’m not working [laughs]. I am a mommy. That’s my thing.