Secure Space

Colour, HD CAM
Israel, 2008, 50 min
IP – International premiere
Section: Forum of Independents

Synopsis

Haifa, 2006, the Second Lebanon War. Because of the bombing, Jewish bride and groom Maya and Roi are spending their wedding day in the cellar of a house in the villa quarter. The closest members of the family have already gathered in the improvised shelter, and the ceremony itself is to take place there in the evening. On his cellphone, the groom’s step-father solves endless problems caused by the order to stay indoors: most of the guests don’t arrive and the refreshments are not coming. Groom Roi is the most nervous of all: he has to go out and search for his sulking 13-year-old brother. How will the "ruined” wedding turn out? And will the world ever return to normal? Oren Gvili graduated from the University of Tel Aviv with this poetic movie. A cinematically mature and youthfully positive writer-director statement with a contemporary subtext, the film overflows with joyful filmmaking energy. From an intimate tale of a spoiled marriage, it inconspicuously grows into a metaphoric contemplation of the eternal threat to personal space.

About the director

Oren Gvili began attending the department of television and film (rounded out with multidisciplinary studies in art) at the University of Tel Aviv in 2001. Set in a Haifa bomb shelter, his graduation movie Secure Space tells of a ruined wedding. In addition to directing, he also wrote and produced the film. At the 24th Haifa International Film Festival Secure Space received the Art Foundation Award. While at school Gvili shot Punk Life, a short documentary about the Israeli punk community. In addition, he created Internet advertising, and his short feature drama Prayer for the Journey was screened at festivals in France and the USA.