Kibbutz Legend by late Israeli filmmaker Yahav Winner, who was killed during Hamas’ terror attack on October 7 last year, is now headed into post-production via Zoa Films and is eyeing a 2025 release.
Winner wrote and stars in the dramatic comedy opposite his widow Shay-Lee Atary who has taken on the editing process for the feature.
The film is loosely based on the couple’s own lives, giving a haunting glimpse into the Kibbutz Kfar Aza before the 2023 attacks.
It follows a struggling actor and his pregnant wife who move to a kibbutz on the Gaza border and decide to direct a play as they bond with the local community amidst the constant threat of alarms and rockets. Winner’s real father also stars as himself among other residents in the film which is set and shot in the kibbutz where Yahav grew up with his family.
Many scenes take place at the filmmaker’s own apartment where he was shot and killed guarding the window to allow time for his wife and their one-month-old daughter to escape attackers before his body was later found a few days later in Kfar Aza by the Israeli army.
Aviv Ben Shlush, Winner’s cousin, and Lee Cooperman are spearheading the film’s completion.
The indie passion project was filmed in just 12 days in June and July of 2023 with mostly local volunteers and was first self-financed by Winner and Ben Shlush before being granted official funding from Israel Cinema Project – Rabinovich Foundation days after Winner’s death last year. “We found out during the shiva (Jewish mourning period) that the film had been granted funding,” Ben Shlush told Screen.
Producers are still seeking post-production financing, global sales representation and festival play for the feature that will be completed by early 2025.
Ben Shlush describes the film as “a peaceful, optimistic and bright representation of the kibbutz that ends with a beautiful song where everyone is singing together in the same shelter that has been completely destroyed today.”
The film’s DOP Ben Peled returned to the kibbutz just two weeks after the October 7 attacks to film the locations that now serve as contrast images to the bucolic settings depicted in the film. “Most of the lead cast was hurt one way or another. Many lost a son, a daughter, a father or someone in their family,” Ben Shlush adds.
Zoa Films is also behind Fox Entertainment Studios and Yes TV’s four-part scripted drama series One Day in October and features including romantic comedy Matchmaking 2 and Tom Shoval’s Take Your Cares Away starring Berenice Bejo.
Israel’s Lev Cinemas will release Winner’s award-winning short film about life on the Israel-Gaza border The Boy in theatres in December of this year.
Ben Shlush shared Winner’s intentions before filming Kibbutz Legend in which the late filmmaker cites “the special energy that resides here” and plans to “capture the bright colours that exist in the kibbutz paths (…) Magical and threatening, like in a fairy tale.”
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