{"id":8747,"date":"2013-06-28T20:35:20","date_gmt":"2013-06-29T03:35:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/?p=8747"},"modified":"2013-06-28T20:35:20","modified_gmt":"2013-06-29T03:35:20","slug":"israeli-director-pays-short-film-homage-to-the-prophet-amos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2013\/06\/israeli-director-pays-short-film-homage-to-the-prophet-amos.html","title":{"rendered":"Israeli director pays short-film homage to the prophet Amos"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a>Don\u2019t know how I never heard of this before, but it turns out nine directors from around the world are contributing to an upcoming film about religion called Words with Gods<\/a><\/i>.<\/p>\n

The film, an anthology of short movies, is the brainchild of Mexican filmmaker Guillermo Arriaga, who wrote films like Babel<\/a><\/i> (2006) and The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada<\/a><\/i> (2005) before getting into the director\u2019s chair for The Burning Plain<\/i> (2008).<\/p>\n

I first became aware of the new film when The Hollywood Reporter<\/a><\/i> announced today that Peter Gabriel has signed on to write the music for it. A quick bit of Googling soon revealed that one of the nine directors<\/a> involved in the project is Amos Gitai (pictured above), and that his contribution is called \u2018The Book of Amos\u2019.<\/p>\n

This intrigues me, not only because I\u2019m a connoisseur of Bible films in general, but also because Gitai, an Israeli, has directed two of the more interesting feature-length films in this field, namely Esther<\/i> (1986) and Golem: The Spirit of Exile<\/i> (1992).<\/p>\n

The former film, as I recall, was set mostly in the past but had some modern elements as well, while the latter film set the Book of Ruth in present-day France. So I cannot help but wonder if \u2018The Book of Amos\u2019 will be based on the Bible too and, if so, to what degree it will mix modern and biblical elements.<\/p>\n

A 15-month-old article in Haaretz<\/a><\/i>, written when Gitai was shooting his contribution to the anthology, gives us a hint or two:<\/p>\n

Gitai said Arriga approached him a few weeks ago to direct a short film on the subject of God. \u201cI told them I\u2019m not religious, but what I love about the biblical text is that it is critical\u2026 For example, King David, who was very much admired, is presented in the Bible as an immoral person because he desired Bathsheba and therefore he sent Uriah into battle. The greatness of the biblical editor is that he chose not to take that out, so people would see that it\u2019s alright to criticize the monarchy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Seven actors will play three prophetesses and four prophets in Gitai\u2019s 12-minute production \u2013 Yael Abecassis, Ruti Asersai, Sarai Givaty, Zohar Shtrauss, Eran Sabag, Shadi Sarur and Arnon Ophir. A 43-voice choir from Haifa will also take part.<\/p>\n

Gitai said he chose to focus on Amos for the same reason his parents chose that name for him, because Amos criticized the bourgeoisie. \u201cHe called the bourgeoisie \u2018fat cows of Bashan<\/a>,\u2019 who oppress the poor and the downtrodden. The film \u2018Book of Amos\u2019 is my chance to pay homage to this text,\u201d Gitai said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Sounds interesting, at any rate \u2014 and not just because Amos is one of those biblical texts that is almost never<\/i> translated to film in some way.<\/p>\n

The film, which will also feature contributions by Emir Kusturica, Mira Nair and Hector Babenco, does not currently have a distributor, but the producers hope to premiere it at one of the major festivals before releasing it in 2014.<\/p>\n

Oh, and speaking of Amos Gitai and Peter Gabriel, they both have something in common: They both used an Armenian folk tune on the soundtrack to a 1980s Bible flick. Gitai actually used it first, in Esther<\/i>; two years later, Gabriel added some percussion and played the very same tune over the opening credits to The Last Temptation of Christ<\/a><\/i> (1988). Think they\u2019ll use it again in the new film?<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Israeli director Amos Gitai — who has already made semi-modernized versions of the stories of Esther and Ruth — says his contribution to the short-film anthology Words with Gods<\/i> will “pay homage” to the prophet Amos.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1116,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1260,1254,530,1255,1256,1258,351,1259,759,1257],"class_list":["post-8747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","tag-amos","tag-amos-gitai","tag-esther","tag-esther-1986","tag-golem-the-spirit-of-exile","tag-guillermo-arriaga","tag-last-temptation-of-christ","tag-peter-gabriel","tag-ruth","tag-words-with-gods"],"yoast_head":"\nIsraeli director pays short-film homage to the prophet Amos<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Israeli director Amos Gitai -- who has already made semi-modernized versions of the stories of Esther and Ruth -- says his contribution to the short-film anthology Words with Gods will "pay homage" to the prophet Amos.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2013\/06\/israeli-director-pays-short-film-homage-to-the-prophet-amos.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Israeli director pays short-film homage to the prophet Amos\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Israeli director Amos Gitai -- who has already made semi-modernized versions of the stories of Esther and Ruth -- says his contribution to the short-film anthology Words with Gods will "pay homage" to the prophet Amos.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2013\/06\/israeli-director-pays-short-film-homage-to-the-prophet-amos.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"FilmChat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-06-29T03:35:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/files\/2013\/06\/amosgitai-257x300.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Peter T. Chattaway\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Peter T. Chattaway\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2013\/06\/israeli-director-pays-short-film-homage-to-the-prophet-amos.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2013\/06\/israeli-director-pays-short-film-homage-to-the-prophet-amos.html\",\"name\":\"Israeli director pays short-film homage to the prophet Amos\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2013-06-29T03:35:20+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-06-29T03:35:20+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#\/schema\/person\/5759ddf28b81af08b29eb15b4e071fde\"},\"description\":\"Israeli director Amos Gitai -- who has already made semi-modernized versions of the stories of Esther and Ruth -- says his contribution to the short-film anthology Words with Gods will \\\"pay homage\\\" to the prophet Amos.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2013\/06\/israeli-director-pays-short-film-homage-to-the-prophet-amos.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2013\/06\/israeli-director-pays-short-film-homage-to-the-prophet-amos.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2013\/06\/israeli-director-pays-short-film-homage-to-the-prophet-amos.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Israeli director pays short-film homage to the prophet Amos\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/\",\"name\":\"FilmChat\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#\/schema\/person\/5759ddf28b81af08b29eb15b4e071fde\",\"name\":\"Peter T. Chattaway\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9c4b809df092b410d749a6995bcf4f3e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9c4b809df092b410d749a6995bcf4f3e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Peter T. Chattaway\"},\"description\":\"Peter T. Chattaway was the regular film critic for BC Christian News from 1992 to 2011. In addition to his award-winning film column for that paper, his news and opinion pieces have appeared in such publications as Books & Culture, Christianity Today, Bible Review and the Vancouver Sun. He has also contributed essays to the books Re-Viewing The Passion: Mel Gibson\u2019s Film and Its Critics (Palgrave Macmillan, 2004), Scandalizing Jesus?: Kazantzakis\u2019s The Last Temptation of Christ Fifty Years on (Continuum, 2005) and The Bible in Motion: A Handbook of the Bible and Its Reception in Film (De Gruyter, 2016).\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/author\/peterchattaway\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Israeli director pays short-film homage to the prophet Amos","description":"Israeli director Amos Gitai -- who has already made semi-modernized versions of the stories of Esther and Ruth -- says his contribution to the short-film anthology Words with Gods will \"pay homage\" to the prophet Amos.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2013\/06\/israeli-director-pays-short-film-homage-to-the-prophet-amos.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Israeli director pays short-film homage to the prophet Amos","og_description":"Israeli director Amos Gitai -- who has already made semi-modernized versions of the stories of Esther and Ruth -- says his contribution to the short-film anthology Words with Gods will \"pay homage\" to the prophet Amos.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2013\/06\/israeli-director-pays-short-film-homage-to-the-prophet-amos.html","og_site_name":"FilmChat","article_published_time":"2013-06-29T03:35:20+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/files\/2013\/06\/amosgitai-257x300.jpg"}],"author":"Peter T. Chattaway","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Peter T. Chattaway","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2013\/06\/israeli-director-pays-short-film-homage-to-the-prophet-amos.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2013\/06\/israeli-director-pays-short-film-homage-to-the-prophet-amos.html","name":"Israeli director pays short-film homage to the prophet Amos","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#website"},"datePublished":"2013-06-29T03:35:20+00:00","dateModified":"2013-06-29T03:35:20+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#\/schema\/person\/5759ddf28b81af08b29eb15b4e071fde"},"description":"Israeli director Amos Gitai -- who has already made semi-modernized versions of the stories of Esther and Ruth -- says his contribution to the short-film anthology Words with Gods will \"pay homage\" to the prophet Amos.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2013\/06\/israeli-director-pays-short-film-homage-to-the-prophet-amos.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2013\/06\/israeli-director-pays-short-film-homage-to-the-prophet-amos.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2013\/06\/israeli-director-pays-short-film-homage-to-the-prophet-amos.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Israeli director pays short-film homage to the prophet Amos"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/","name":"FilmChat","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#\/schema\/person\/5759ddf28b81af08b29eb15b4e071fde","name":"Peter T. Chattaway","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9c4b809df092b410d749a6995bcf4f3e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9c4b809df092b410d749a6995bcf4f3e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Peter T. Chattaway"},"description":"Peter T. Chattaway was the regular film critic for BC Christian News from 1992 to 2011. In addition to his award-winning film column for that paper, his news and opinion pieces have appeared in such publications as Books & Culture, Christianity Today, Bible Review and the Vancouver Sun. He has also contributed essays to the books Re-Viewing The Passion: Mel Gibson\u2019s Film and Its Critics (Palgrave Macmillan, 2004), Scandalizing Jesus?: Kazantzakis\u2019s The Last Temptation of Christ Fifty Years on (Continuum, 2005) and The Bible in Motion: A Handbook of the Bible and Its Reception in Film (De Gruyter, 2016).","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/author\/peterchattaway"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1116"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8747"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8747\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}