Published: July 01, 2018| 08:10 PM

Joseph Madmony has returned to the KVIFF competition, which he won in 2011 with the film Restoration (Boker Tov Adon Fidelman). “For me, Karlovy Vary has great significance. As a child, I loved Czech culture. My first girlfriend may have broken up with me during my first visit to Prague, but I really enjoyed myself during the visits that followed. And it is here that I received my first important award, and for directors, awards are like candy: after one you want another,” described the Israeli director his relationship to the festival.

This year in Karlovy Vary, he will be presenting his gentle drama Redemption (Geula). The name Geula, which means redemption, is borne by a small, sick girl, the daughter of an orthodox widower who, to finance her treatment, returns to his career in music. “In the film his band plays a combination of rock and Jewish traditional music. All the actors are musicians,” Madmony points out.

At the press conference, there was a debate about how much the role of singer is in conflict with the main character’s faith. “Artists have a big ego, but as an ultraorthodox religious person, you have to devote your life to something other than yourself. But our film is about throwing away labels, seeing more in a person than just a believer or a singer,” explains the director, adding that Moshe Folenflik, the actor playing the lead, is devout – proof that art and religion are not mutually exclusive. “The main character first believes that it’s either one or the other. His task is to harmonise his life,” added Madmony. He then discussed how he framed this character with the straight lines in his flat to express his suffocating existence.

Co-director and author of the story, Boaz Yehonatan Yaacov, also believes Geula (Redemption) discusses more how a person should rid himself of negative feelings that it does religion. He, however, only sent a message to Karlovy Vary, because his wife had recently given birth. Conversely, young Emily Granin, the actor who portrayed adorable Geula, did make it to the festival. She, however, was too shy to speak in front of the reporters.