SION 2006

Summary: Silent | 11 min | b&w | 16 mm film converted to DVD | Video Installation / movie theater | France | 2006

The action takes place in the Louvre Museum. Ronit Elkabetz, the actress, appears as the allegorical embodiement of Jerusalem. The camera follows her as she is walking in the Department of the Levant.
She is clad in black and carries a flag of the same color. Jerusalem – both queen and godess – is at the same time this woman in exile, empoverished and exhausted by the wars of men who have been fighting and colonizing her body for centuries.
She wanders in the Louvre Museum in search for visual objects - either religious or biblical – left by the civilisations who physically occupied her and who disappeared now.
But she cannot find any sign of herself, of her body throughout this wandering. Jerusalem finds herself at the crossing of two galleries where different symbols of the West are gathered.
She is victim of violent acts performed by a strange dark shape. A king with his servant brings her a magnificent dress: now Jerusalem leaves off her exile plight.
The scenes shot in the Louvre were conceived as performances during the shooting. The narrative stemmed from those different performances in 16mm.
The reappropriation of the silent film genre generates a metaphysical dimension here: this acts as a break with the present time.
This short-film, especially conceived for the auditorium of the Louvre Museum, is based on the rushes of the film Zion. It was shot in the section of the Levant and in the French and Italian galleries of paintings.

Credits:

Written and Directed by : Yosef Joseph Dadoune

Featuring : Ronit Elkabetz

Camera: patrick Doberenz
Editor : Yosef Joseph Dadoune
Assistant editor: aymeric françois

Hebrew font and additional costumes: Joseph Dadoune
Graphics: M.S.Brink

Costumes (ronit elkabetz): Christian lacroix, paris
Make-up: azusa Kato

Production assistant : laurence saadé

technical support: Centre photographique d’ile-de-france
Post-production: Cité internationale des arts, paris

Location: louvre museum, paris, 24 January 2006
richelieu Wing, Khorsabad courtyard
(northern iraq); egyptian antiquities Wing
Denon Wing: Collection of european painting,
mid-13th century – mid-19th century
Director/Script/editor: Joseph Dadoune
Starring: ronit elkabetz (sion)
Featuring: Joseph Dadoune (King), Charly Zrihen (amputee)

With the participation of: the louvre museum, paris

With the support of: the israeli ministry of foreign affairs, Cultural and scientific affairs Division

Thanks to:

Marie-Laure Bernadac
Philippe-Alain Michaud
Nathalie Giraudeau
Rafi Gamzou
Anita Mazor
Chantal Helenbeck
Nadia Bouzid
Elizabeth Bonnel
Pauline Guélaud,
Catherine Derosier-Pouchous
Jean Gismondi,
Francine Lutenberg
Cyril Mouret

SION 2002-07

Sion/Jerusalem, enacted by actress Ronit Elkabetz, is the main character that sets the plot in motion. Visual language combining cinema with art, allegory about Jerusalem in the mirror of time, with all the historical events that have left wounded, low spirited and humiliated.

The film describes Sion's strategy of survival until its yearned for revival.Primordial landscapes, the Judean desert and the Negev, the sights of the town of Ofakim – all these assume a new dimension of power and strength that culminate in a political-cultural act formulated through a performance taking place inside the Louvre – a powerful institution and the very heart of the Western cultural establishment.

Sion presents a cultural vision, and takes a stand regarding the West's approach to Sion/Jerusalem, and the latter's status within the West's canonical culture. One of the film's peaks is a penetration into the Louvre, during which an act of code-changing takes place. In the Levant Wing, devoted to perpetuation of the art of the Near East, and wherefrom the traces of her biblical past are absent, Sion/Elkabetz walks in royal dress designed by Christian Lacroix, declaring,
through her very presence, a process of rectification and healing.

Sion is a real woman, but also a mystical-religious entity and a universal icon that embodies a state of mind and a general mindset toward Jerusalem. Sion, where the origins of the link between East and West are rooted, expresses the
tragedy and melancholy which Jerusalem projects onto the world. The film presents a struggle between matter and spirit, between East and West, between Judaism and Christianity, between the crime and its punishment, and between logic and
madness.

Credits:

Director/Script: Joseph Dadoune
Starring: ronit elkabetz (sion)
Featuring: Joseph Dadoune (Bull Demon, messenger),
Charly Zrihen (amputee)
Technical support: Centre photographique d’ile-de-france
Camera: asaf Korman
Editor: Wayne yung
Costumes (ronit elkabetz): Christian lacroix, paris; Joseph Dadoune
Make-up: azusa Kato
Music: reef Cohen
Kamancha: mark eliyahu
Sound: gilles laurent
Mix: thomas gauder
Visual effects: M.S. Brink

Rough-cut: M.S. Brink, adam Zaslavsky, yasmine
novak

The Making of Sion: thomas Zoritchak

Stills: oliver imfeld

Post-production: Cité internationale des arts, paris, and the
guest atelier of the City of Düsseldorf, germany
(as part of an artist exchange with the ein hod
artist village, israel)

Assistant: itshak Badashe, laurence saadé

Drivers: raymond, David shemeshe, francesco

Location: le Jas sainte marie manor house, lorgues,
france; the Wadi, Khan ha’ofek ranch,
municipal landfill, ayad’s Bedouin camp, of-ar
textile factory, ofakim; yemin moshe and valley
of hinnom, Jerusalem; teqoa, Judean hills; the
louvre museum, paris

With the participation of: the louvre museum, paris

With the support of: yehusua rabinowitz tel aviv foundation for the
arts, Cinema project; the israeli ministry of
foreign affairs, Cultural and scientific affairs
Division.
thanks to: aurelien llavador, lorgues;
municipality of ofakim: avi asaraf, mayor of
ofakim, aharon elkabetz, shefa Department;
Élie Cabessa farm; Zahout sewing Workshop
ltd., ofakim; Desi & flora, Department of
Communications, the City of Jerusalem;
tamar Castelnuovo, gush etzion Development
Company; marie-laure Bernadac, louvre
museum, paris; philippe-alain michaud,
Centre pompidou, paris; rafi gamzou, the
israeli ministry of foreign affairs; anita mazor,
embassy of israel, paris; nathalie giraudeau,
Centre photographique d’ile-de-france;
mordechai omer, tel aviv museum of art; rinat
aboulafia, Chantal helenbeck, uri amitai, nadia
Bouzid, elisabeth Bonnel, simone f. Brunau,
margol guttman, pauline guélaud, Catherine
Derosier-pouchous, Jean gismondi, olivier
taieb, Jérôme taieb, Benoît llavador, francine
lutenberg, Cyril mouret, Karin rauers, original
Cachou, paris, roi Kuper