Yes Repeat No (2023) Movie Script

1
[]
[Juliano Mer-Khamis]
One, two, three, four
We don't need your fucking
war
Five, six, seven, eight
Take the time to demonstrate

Hey, hey Ho Chi Minh
Hey, hey, USA
Hey, hey, Israel
Hey, hey, Israel
Hey, hey, Israel
Hey, hey, Israel
Hey, hey, Israel
Hey, hey, Israel
Hey, hey, Israel
Hey, hey, Israel
Hey, hey, Israel
Hey, hey, Israel
Hey, hey, Israel
Hey, hey, Israel
Hey, hey, Israel
Hey, hey, Israel
Hey, hey, Israel
Hey, hey, Israel
[suspenseful instrumental music]
Hey, hey, Israel
[]
-[pages flipping]
-[metronome clicking]
[man] What is this war?
In the heart of nature?
[]
What is this war?
In the heart of nature?
[metronome clicking]
What is this war?
[M. Dahan] We're not
rolling yet, are we?
[cameraman] We're speeding.
[Arab Juliano] In the heart of
nature?
-Marker.
-[clacks]
-[stagehand] Thank you.
-[director] Thank you.
-Cameras rolling?
-[cameraman] Speeding.
[cameraman] Oh, Yeah.
[director] Okay, action for
Salome.
Just--
[Arab Juliano] What is this
war, in the heart of nature?
[woman] I'm sure you have
covered this but,
exactly what am I auditioning
for,
the Zionist, the captain?
[man] No, I--
[Salome] Or the [indistinct]
You're not auditioning for one
type,
for one character, but for a
type,
an Israeli type.
[metronome clicking]
The role will-- The role will
be playing will include pieces
of each.
So all three, really, you know?
[Arab Juliano] What is
this, what is this war?
What is this war in the heart
of nature?
What is it?
[M.Dahan] Ok, cameras are
speeding and slated for session.
[Arab Juliano] What is
-this war?
-[cameraman] Okay.
[stagehand] Okay.
[M. Dahan] I'm dead serious--
[assistant] If you can, uh,
call marker.
[door creaks open]
[door creaks shut]
-Hello.
-[static]
You're auditioning for
the part of Israeli Juliano.
Israeli Juliano. [laughs]
Something funny?
What kind of a name is that?
It's a--
It's a conceptual film.
You can be a type for a
conceptual film, can't you?
Yeah.
So you're going to be playing
a type,
a facet of a character
based on the film roles
played by Juliano Mer-Khamis.
Are you familiar with
this actor, activist?
[chuckles] I didn't know...
he died, no?
[metronome clicking]
So I'm playing an actor and an
activist,
who is himself acting?
What is he acting in?
It's a Zionist settler.
[static]
That won't be a problem, will
it?
[metronome clicking]
[groans]
[pages flipping]
[hands rubbing]
[warms voice]
-[sniffs]
-[metronome clicking]
[static]
Thank you for coming.
Oh, thank you.
I'm here for audition--
You're reading for the
character type
of Arab Juliano today.
Type, what do you mean, type?
We've put together a few
different parts into a type.
Oh, you mean in like in,
maybe one character?
[woman] No, I mean into a type.
Oh, okay.
So, the lines of
dialogue in front of you.
There are different facets
of the character type.
Can you play them all?
This one?
That's correct.
That will be a challenge,
but who are they?
Okay, the first part you will
play
is Ali, a Lebanese Shiite
freedom fighter.
Pick up the rifle.
This Juliano, you
know, he was not Muslim.
He was raised Palestinian
Christian.
So you're familiar with him?
-Yes.
-[Yael] The Arab Juliano?
Yeah, everybody knows Juliano.
You know, he learned about
politics
at the end of his father's
belt.
[metronome clicking]
What does that mean?
Well for our purposes, he's
an Arab and he's an actor.
And that's close enough for us.
It's Palestinian, tomato,
tomato.
-[metronome clicking]
-[actor exhales]
[Yael] Hello, yes, thank you for
coming.
-[Public Juliano] Oh, hi.
-[Yael] Approach
the microphone, please.
One second.
[metronome clicking]
[paper flaps]
[strains]
[groaning noises]
[warms voice]
[exhales]
-Hi.
-[static]
You will be reading for the
part
of public persona of Juliano
Mer-Khamis.
Public persona?
Yes, it's his appearances
in the public sphere,
excluding his movies.
This conceptual film, we're
gonna be using those elements
to give context to Juliano
Mer-Khamis.
Okay.
Interior, television studio,
night.
Juliano as Juliano appears on
an interview
on the Middle Eastern broadcast
network
with host Hassan Newash.
[actor] Excuse me.
[metronome clicking]
Juliano as Juliano?
The character Juliano
played in the world.
Okay.
Performing his public self
in the theater of the real.
Yes?
Yes.
[woman] I will continue.
-[metronome clicking]
-[static]
[woman] "Berlin to Jerusalem",
directed by Amos Gitai.
[papers flap]
"In 1930's Palestine,
the Kibbutz is a commune
for settlers from Russia
and Eastern Europe.
Juliano as Menachim, the
Zionist settler,
sits at a table eating with
other members of the commune
as Yachek arrives."
[items rustling]
[metronome clicking]
Welcome, come sit with us.
Welcome, how did you get here?
[woman] I walked.
All the way from Jaffa?
I hope you stay.
We can do with more workers,
hey.
I hope you stay.
Well, that's why I'm here.
I'm here because I dreamt of
a future
as a muscular, tanned
Kibbutz-nik.
[shouts] Plowing, plowing!
Plowing the fertile fields of
the Israel valley in the day,
[]
singing religiously in
the dining hall at night
and fiercely guarding a farm
land later,
riding on a noble horse.
A noble vision.
Place your hand on the gun.
[]
In blood and fire, Judea fell.
In blood and fire, Judea fell.
In blood and fire, Judea shall
rise.
In blood and fire, Judea shall
rise.
In blood and fire, Judea fell,
in blood and fire, Judea shall
rise.
-[]
-[metronome clicking]
[sniffs]
You know, the Zionist,
he reminds me of my mother's
dream.
[]
She was here before the state,
before the politics at the
beginning of the century.
And the softness of that time,
the light, the smell of the
earth.
The next part is going to be,
the bellicose Israeli captain.
It's a little bit different
from the early Zionist settler.
[screaming]
[explosions]
-[swears in Arabic]
-[gun cocks]
"Move, the Syrians are coming.
Yalla, turn around, get out!
Cowboys, huh?
Wake up kids, there's a war!
[Yalla habibi]
I'm taking you in my
unit, your unit has left."
[woman] What?
"I said, I'm taking you in my
unit.
Do I love the war?
I love the war... dumb fucking
Arabs.
They didn't learn anything
from the last war.
Two days we'll be in Damascus
and we'll destroy them.
-[gun cocks]
-It's a game, isn't it?
Nobody gets hurt, right?
No one gets hurt.
Yalla!! Ginger, Go get
your kit, come back.
I need men like you, kush-kush.
Get a haircut... come on, wake
up!
Wake up, kids!
No smoking, take that hat off."
[explosions]
"There's no feelings in
this, nobody gets hurt, huh?
It's concept, it's not people,
huh?
It's concept, right?"
-[]
-[metronome clicking]
[exhales]
[chuckles]
Sorry.
-[static]
-So.
This is Kippur war, no?
[woman] Uh-huh.
His whole unit dies.
He's dead... and he's dead.
And... he's dead
[]
So much death.
And he's dead, and he's dead.
And he's dead, and he's
dead, and he's dead.
And he's dead, and he's dead,
And he's dead, and he's
dead, and he's dead.
They're all dead.
[]
[metronome clicking]
In "Hostages", directed
by David Wheatley
for British TV And HBO,
Juliano plays an Arab terrorist
named Ali.
"Will you unchain me?
I have a terrible pain, I
have to use the bathroom."
"No, you must be locked."
Oh wait, hold on.
English is more of a challenge
for Ali,
he's not English, he's Arab.
Sorry, you said Lebanese.
Oh well, Arab, Lebanese.
Same thing, really?
It's not the same thing,
but, okay, alright and back.
[clears throat]
"No, you must be lock-ED."
A little rougher, maybe
a little bit swarthier.
Swarthier?
[woman] Do you know what that
means?
Yeah, like pirate?
Ah, okay.
You're a Lebanese, right?
Yes, from Sidon.
[grunts]
"So why do you follow Iran?"
"'Cause they rule themselves by
Islam.
What happened in Iran
should happen everywhere."
"But you blow up marines,
you hijack planes and you kill
passengers."
"No, who did Hiroshima, huh?
Who did Vietnam, huh?
Who destroyed Lebanon in 1982,
huh?
Who killed all the women and
children
and Sabra and Shatila?
[shouts] You tell me who."
"The Palestinian authority
cannot hold the stick on both
ends
to incite violence and
to participate in it,
and then to tell the world how,
how,
what kind of underdog they are.
[chuckles]
It's just--"
[static]
[M. Dahan] Let's try it one more
time.
So this time, let's try one
that is just not amped up,
where you're just like,
"You know, I'm gonna say this
again.
The Palestine authority."
-You know.
-[woman] Oh.
You're trying to just cut,
you know the argument
and you've had it before
and you're just kind of reciting
it,
because you know it so
well, something like that.
Okay.
[Arab Juliano] "Who murdered
hundreds of women and children
in Sabra, hey?
And Shatila?"
-"Who?"
The Palestinian authority
cannot hold the stick on both
ends
to incite violence and
then to participate in it,
and then to tell the whole
world
what kind of underdog they
are?
-[chuckles]
-[static]
I'm sorry, Miss director,
what page are you on?
I don't see this in the script.
Palestinian Authority?
Yeah, um.
[static]
[]
[metronome clicking]
[woman] " Mer-Khamis,
interesting that your mother is
Jewish.
And your father is Palestinian.
Where are you from, really?"
"Okay.
So my mother, fought
for the establishing of the
Israeli state,
she was part of the Palmach,
the special brigades.
And then she took part in the
big plan D,
the exile of the Palestinians
from the southern part of
Palestine.
When she realized that she was
taking part
in the ethnic cleansing of
Palestine,
she decided to leave the
Palmach."
"So she became an
anti-Zionist?"
"Do you understand the word
anti-Zionist?
Anti-Zionist bring a lot
of anxiety to people.
Anti-Zionist is not anti-Jewish.
Anti-Zionist is not
anti-Semitic.
It's against the destruction
of the state of Israel.
The nation of Israel, no,
anti-Zionist,
[stomps]
anti-Zionist, as my mother put
it,
is building a place big enough
for both nations to live
together,
not in coexistence, but in
existence."
[]
[M. Dahan] Just bring the
hope back in a little bit.
[actor] Yeah, great.
Because then the contours
of where you get to with the--
[actor] Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[M. Dahan] The melancholic
reservist are really nice.
-[actor] Yeah, yeah, yeah.
-[sniffs]
Really hat I was
feeling with the Zionist
was the emotion of that
hope, you know, the idealism?
[M. Dahan] Yeah. And I want--
-[actor] Yeah.
-[M. Dahan] But I just wanna
see,
-like the--
-[actor] The, yeah.
[M. Dahan] The hopefulness.
[actor] Yeah, when I go back to
that.
-[M.Dahan] Yeah.
-[actor] The sensuality of the
land.
[M. Dahan] Exactly.
[actor] From hopeful Zionist
to delusional captain.
And now, this broken soldier.
[]
[woman] Amos Gitai's film, "Yom
Yom",
Juliano plays Jules, a
scoundrel,
interior, night, army reservist
barracks.
[metronome clicking]
"Oh, this fucking country,
at forty you are stuck in some
shithole
with a bunch of baboon
reservists.
'mesakhim'
cowboys.
[chuckles]
I'm getting 'outta here, I'm
telling you,
I'm leaving this fucking
country.
Shalom Aleichem, what fucking
peace are they talking about?
we're all gonna die here
like flies, believe me."
"Well you can always make peace
with an F16 in your pocket."
'Kapara'
"You wanna flirt?
We flirt, but later."
[metronome clicking]
Look, I don't understand, why
three?
What are you asking me?
It doesn't make sense
that you would want to see those
three.
Which one am I auditioning for?
These characters, they
cancel each other out.
All three of them together,
right, they're a type.
[Arab Juliano] Maybe you
have something different, yeah?
Alright, I have another facet
for you.
Go.
It's also a terrorist, but,
but it's a more important
terrorist, it's a jihadi.
-And if there's lots of--
-Yeah, okay.
I'll give it a go.
Great, so these are mostly
monologues
and speeches that Omar, the
Sunni warlord,
gave his jihadi recruits.
In post Saddam Iraq, bottom of
page 17.
Whenever you're ready.
Just one minute.
-[metronome clicking]
-[pages rustling]
[exhales]
[metronome clicking]
"Those who have ivnade--"
Sorry.
"Those who've invaded us are
dogs.
Let us show them that Muslims
come from all over the world
and are united in one country.
If one member of the group is
attacked,
the rest will react in fury.
We will reign Islam
over their dead corpses.
The Quran tells us,
"Your sacrifices will open
the door to paradise."
Allahu Akbar!
Allahu Akbar!"
[]
-Thank you.
-[clacking]
[Adam] Did you guys see
the three other ways
he predicted he is gonna die?
-[M. Dahan] No.
-[S. Szalavitz] Yes.
He has three ways, he said,
"I have three ways I'm gonna
die.
One, I'm gonna end up in New
York
under the bridge with a bottle
of vodka,
looking for my wife who
left me because she,
because I'm not the best.
And she found somebody
in New York who's better,
and I'm gonna go look for her
and end up talking to a guy,
be like cold and talking
to a guys like, ah.
And then I'm gonna die."
[M. Dahan] Wow.
It's insane, then he says,
"The second way is I'm just
gonna be fat and happy.
We're gonna be fat and happy."
He's playing all these
characters, he's like.
Really just fat and happy.
[M. Dahan] Oh, I didn't see
that.
"I'm just gonna sit
there and eat and laugh."
[M. Dahan] Oh, I didn't see
that.
And then the third one was
this one.
Wait, he predicted how he's
going to die?
Yeah, his murder or your
murder.
Oh and if there's a link
between Juliano's story
and the actual event,
it's impossible to know.
I mean, who knows if one caused
the other?
But what we do know is that
he was assassinated in Jenin,
in his red Citron with
his infant son on his lap.
This is a part of his public
persona.
[]
So I'm playing a dead man.
I'm playing a dead man.
The persona is the Israeli and
the Arab,
the actor and the activist,
whom are all now dead.
[M. Dahan] You need to really
like--
-[Adam] As Juliano?
-Try to describe it.
As Juliano.
-[Adam] Or as the actor?
-Or as the actor
in this interview, right?
Because as Juliano, I think.
[Adam] You want an intensity or?
I'm just like, I want to feel
it bubbling from inside you.
It could be intensity,
it could be loudness.
I don't wanna make a
decision of how you do it.
"Tell me how you remain
hopeful."
[]
"Well, I'm not a good Jew
who's coming to help the Arabs.
I'm not a good Palestinian
who comes to feed the poor.
I'm not a good Christian,
I'm not a healer.
No, I am a freedom fighter."
"What do you mean?"
"It's really about how we see
ourselves
living with the Israelis.
What rights we give to the
Israelis
who come to Palestine after 48.
Because you are also
responsible."
"Are you absolving the
Israeli responsibility--
-"Ohhhh, the Israeli
-from the excesses
-responsibility"
-and crimes
that they have committed?"
"The Israeli responsibility is
obvious.
Everybody knows that.
But our problems in the Arab
world is our collaborators,
in Palestine, people
will sell their brothers
for a fucking phone card.
I crossed Jenin because I am
privileged."
"Sir, you are the embodiment
of the Israeli, Palestinian
dilemma.
They're living inside of you,
right?"
"Well,
I...
...am the nightmare of Judaism,
the boogeyman of Zionism.
But I am a hundred percent
Palestinian
and a hundred percent Jewish.
Whatever you do, just
don't leave the tribe.
Don't leave the tribe, because
once you leave the tribe,
you are no longer pure Jewish."
"I see. [chuckles] "
"Look, we lost the intifada.
We lost the public opinion.
We fucked up because we were
desperate
and we were frustrated."
"It's a question of what to do
with it."
"Well, you know, Shimon Peres
said,
"You can kill a body,
but you cannot kill the great
and noble idea of peace."
That's what I believe in."
"Yes, ""But victors do
not necessarily win peace.
That's the thing."
Shimon Peres also said that."
"Look, children in the theater
love us.
Older people, 35 and up,
they're already established
their ideology about Israel,
about Palestine, about Islam,
about Judaism, about
everything, they hate us.
The Palestinian authorities hate
us.
You know, I never felt as
Jewish as I feel in Jenin,
-[]
-[metronome clicking]
and I never felt as Arab
as I feel in Tel Aviv.
[metronome clicking]
[woman] You could say that
each is a different facet
Like a....
...a diamond.
A diamond?
So you are telling a story
across time.
How do you mean?
I mean, basically you see a
sequence
and you see it chronologically,
and you see it fragmented in
time.
The settler, the Zionist
settler comes first
with his romanticism and his
idealism
and his tough resourcefulness,
leaving behind the old type
and all the stereotypes.
And he makes a new Jew,
moves in time and clears space
for the crazy captain and his
cockiness.
Yes, that's the engine, very
good.
He then crashes under
the weight of his guilt
and his trauma,
into the... neurotic,
self doubting balangan
the melancholic reservist.
[]
To think that you can,
as a Zionist independent Jewish
state,
rule over another people for
generations,
without consequences... it's
absurd.
Is there a connection you feel
to one of these roles over
another?
You showed me,
you showed me the connection,
and now you are asking me to
choose,
or are you playing God and
you just want to be God
asking Avram for a sacrifice?
How would I sacrifice one over
the other?
That takes faith beyond duty.
When you have two
alternatives,
the first thing you have to do
is look at the third that
you didn't think about,
that you thought didn't exist.
[static]
Then the only alternative
is transcendence.
[metronome clicking]
Beyond that, I don't know
that I have this faith.
[]
It's faith beyond duty.
"Or a response to absolute
duty."
"Only if you ask me to choose,
then the duty is absolute.
-[]
-[metronome clicking]
Want to play God?
Here I am.
'Hineni'...
... 'hineni'."
-[]
-[metronome clicking]
[]
Sorry, ah.
It's too easy, it's too
easy, these terrorist roles,
for a Palestinian Juliano.
Maybe, maybe you have something
better?
[woman] It's not easy.
At least eight of his 23 roles,
Juliano portrayed Arab
characters.
He got his most screen
time and dialogue in 2006
where he played Omar,
for a two part, four hour
long film for French TV,
called "Jihad".
In part one, he had one minute,
16 seconds of screen time,
and in part two
he had four minutes and
27 seconds of screen time.
-[static]
-[metronome clicking]
[woman] It's not easy...
...it's a mathematical fact.
[]
[Public Juliano] "I'm going to
tell you,
how I'm going to die...
...ready?
A bullet from a fucked up
Palestinian
who is going to be very
angry that we are here.
I am here in Jenin with
this blonde, right?
With this blonde and she's my
wife,
and he is going to take a gun.
[]
And she's going to find
me dead on a doorstep."
[]
[metronome clicking]
[clattering]
[indistinct chatter]
-[]
-[clattering continues]
[]
[Salome] I've noticed a
knot, I've noticed a knot,
I've noticed a knot.
[M. Dahan] Can I get your
scripts?
Part four's on the table.
Everybody get out.
"Yes, but you determine
how quickly this problem is
solved.
Yes, but you determine
how quickly this problem is
solved.
[Salome] I've been looking at,
I've been looking for knots.
[Salome] Yes, but you determine
how quickly this problem is
solved.
[Salome] I've been looking for
knots,
[Salome] I've been looking for
knots and--"
[Arab Juliano] Miss
director, why are we waiting?
I was told by Emily that
I got the lead part.
That's what she told me,
"Title role,"
that's what she said.
The main guy, the Big Kahuna.
[Israeli Juliano] Does
she know you're here?
[Arab Juliano] The director?
Yeah, which part did you read?
Arab Juliano, type.
I came in, I thought I was
playing a generous Sheik, but no.
Why is he here?
Can you tell me, why does he
look like me?
There are three parts.
Three?
[woman] Yes, there's some
overlap, kissing points.
-Sorry, sorry, I'm here.
-[door creaks shut]
Don't let me stop us.
I'm stuck here between
slingshot millionaire
and midnight cowboy.
Miss director please,
maybe an explanation?
I was told that I was the lead
this...
-Why are they here?
-On the screen above me
is the scene that we're
going to be working through.
[Kurtz] Charlie, stop
where you are a minute.
Wait, I said stop!
[]
You did well, but you
recovered,
you lied, you lost your
way, but you hung in there
and when the line broke,
you threw a tantrum
and blamed your troubles
on the whole world.
We are proud of you.
Next time we'll think you
have a better story to tell.
Hurry back, okay?
Time is very, very
-short right now.
-[Joseph] All extremists
are mad, they're extremists.
They have some who would
drive us into the sea.
We have some who will wipe them
out.
Our houses,
we will never surrender.
Even with one Palestinian
left alive, we will fight.
We will fight with what weapons
we have.
[crowd applauding]
What we ask in return--
[Presenter] Well I'm sure
we all appreciate that our
speaker,
whose name they may
only give us, Michelle,
has come at great risk,
he'll not be with us--
[woman] From George Roy Hill's,
1983 spycraft thriller,
"The Little Drummer Girl"
starring Diane Keaton
as an American actress,
the scene presents a number of
problems.
What problems?
What problems?
We leave when we solve these
problems.
How many problems can there be?
[Public Juliano] What?
I'm sorry, what kind of
problems?
How many problems can there be?
What is this movie about?
It's about a triangle,
America, Israel and Palestine.
Charlie, Kurtz and Joseph,
Michel, Salim.
[Arab Juliano] Miss director,
are we supposed to solve
political problems?
[Israeli Juliano] Yeah.
No, no, no.
It's not what I signed up for,
is this some sort of peace
in the Middle East type shit?
What do you mean by,
"We don't leave until
we solve the problem?"
Why are we talking about
talking,
and negotiating about
negotiating?
There is only one Juliano,
there is only one possibility.
-[Arab Juliano] Whoa, whoa.
-I am him.
Woah, woah!
-I am Juliano, easy.
-Woah, whoa, woah!
Come on.
[sings in Arabic]
Big shot, listen, Miss director.
Don't think of yourselves
as playing three individual
parts.
Instead think of it as
three parts of one man.
-One, the Arab.
-Whoa.
Palestinian.
Two, the Israeli, we're
gonna call you Israeli Juliano.
My mother was born in Rosh
Pinna.
Do you have any idea how
beautiful Rosh Pinna is?
She was born in a Zionist
kibbutz
and she fought in the Palmuch.
[woman] The Arab Juliano on one
side
and the Israeli Juliano on the
other side.
[Israeli Juliano] Sides.
[Public Juliano] I remember
both sides.
First I was on the Jewish
side denying my Arab side.
Then I went to the Arab
side denying my Jewish side.
When I left Haifa, I left
Israel.
I left my work, left
my friends, my family.
Now I live in Jenin.
[woman] But you could always
leave Jenin when you wanted
to,
and sometimes passing as
Israeli
and at other times passing as
an Arab.
So was I lying about it?
[woman] It's not that he was
lying,
more, that it was true and
not true at the same time.
What?
[Karim] They point at you guys,
in order for these oppressive
regimes
to have more power to
throw people in jail.
[M.Dahan] You guys, you--
Everybody's has an agenda.
If they wanna throw you in jail
in Beirut they accuse
you of collaboration.
Yeah.
Which I mean, I can get
thrown in jail for this.
See, I don't have that in
Israel.
Not fun, you know?
Yeah, but that's the thing.
That's what we're talking about
-Yeah.
-with Juliano.
Yeah.
The fact that Juliano, where
he went,
you know the danger came
from being in Jenin.
Yeah.
Is where he wanted to
work, what his privilege is,
-that he was safe where he was
from.
-[Adam] Yeah.
[woman] Both A killer.
[Public Juliano] A killer?
A killer in the paratroopers
and an activist in Jenin.
You are in the middle
and we're gonna call, you
public Juliano.
This script, it's from a
stupid Hollywood spy film, okay.
What order are you talking
about?
It's written in order.
There are three parts.
Marty Kurtz, the Israeli,
Joseph, the Arab-Israeli Mossad
agent,
and Charlie, Diane Keaton.
[Arab Juliano] Sorry Miss
director,
Have you decided on who's
playing who,
which parts go to who?
[woman] You can make that
decision.
I'm only here to supervise you.
Like a jail warden, huh?
Is that's what you are?
Charlie is an actor, activist
who's been recruited to work
for the Mossad undercover
because of her skills as a
performer.
You want to see which
one of us is the best liar?
[Karim] Truth is an irrelevant
category.
There's only that which
serves your purpose.
And that which doesn't,
there's no such thing as the
truth.
[Adam] Is this a contest?
Are we competing for the
facet of a character?
Who's the best Arab?
Who's the best Jew?
Who's the best man,
-are you kidding me?
-This is not a contest.
This is a rehearsal.
It's a trial of performance,
repetition out loud.
Kurtz is the German-Jewish
Mossad commander,
played by Klaus Kinski.
His field agent is played by
Yorgo Voyagis as Gadi Becker,
an Arab-Israeli who calls
himself Joseph,
posing as Salim, a Palestinian
bomb maker,
who uses the pseudonym Michel.
[laughs] Oh my god.
[woman] Israeli by occupation,
Palestinian by professional
disguise.
He seduces Charlie to exploit
her--
Look, they don't seem like
phonies to me, and the casting.
Come on this, this, 'mechabel'
A Greek playing a terrorist?
Come on, why this movie?
[Public Juliano] You want
the Arab to play a terrorist
...yeah?
[Arab Juliano] Hey guys, guys.
Yeah.
[Arab Juliano] Guys, maybe for
once,
the Arab does not play the
terrorist, is that okay?
Yeah, maybe for once,
the Arabs don't commit
terrorist acts, is that okay?
Oh, maybe for once the
Israelis doesn't bomb Gaza?
Maybe for once, you
understand it's retaliation?
Maybe for once, you know,
you don't use weapons of
mass destruction on us?
[Public Juliano] Okay, let's
Yeah and so,
because we have military
advantage,
we have to let you kill
our children on buses?
Maybe next time I throw
a rock in your face,
I don't know.
Oh my God, let's listen, okay?
You've done that before,
what did that get you?
A bloody nose.
[]
[Arab Juliano] Sorry.
-[Israeli Juliano] Yes.
-[Arab Juliano] Apolsorry.
[Public Juliano] Keep going,
please.
[woman] It's going to become
clear,
right now you don't need to
keep up.
Okay, put on the suits,
please, each of you.
Put on the suits, please, yes.
[]
[Israeli Juliano] Ah, there we
go.
The Israeli has to have
the black suit again
because Israel, the big black
evil.
Oh, I have to be a Hasid.
[Arab Juliano] Habibi,
take the white suit.
-No, you keep it.
-No, no.
It's good enough to know you
give it up so easily, please.
[Israeli Juliano] Have
you decided who plays who?
Who is leading the charge in the
scene?
[woman] We rehearse the
scene in all three ways.
We find the right order.
[Karim] Five is chamsha?
Chamsha?
[Adam] What's that?
[Karim] Five is chamsha?
[Adam] Cha-mee-sha.
[Karim] Cha-mee-sha.
[Adam] Chameesha.
[Karim] Chameesha.
[Karim] How do you
feel about the accent?
Is it offensive or--
-[Adam] No, it's good.
-It's okay?
A little caricature, but.
-Yeah.
-It's okay.
[Karim] But it can be fixed
a little, how can it be fixed?
Like quick fix for less
caricature?
[Adam] Just less.
-[Karim] Just less?
-[Adam] A little less, like 10%
less.
-[]
-[metronome clicking]
[]
[clicks]
[machine whirring]
[]
[]
[Public Juliano] So when
we find the right order
we're done?
We're going home, right?
We can do this, we're
professionals.
But I do think that the
Israeli and the Arab actors
should play the Israeli
and the Arab character
Yeah...
Oh and Diane Keaton is
standing in for America,
which is why I have the gray
suit.
'Cause America is standing
between
all shades of white to black.
Yeah, let's start there
with the stereotype.
The most expected and
unsurprising link
between the actor and the
character.
But uh, which one of
us has the lead role?
[Israeli Juliano] I'm not
concerned with
the competition, relax.
We can get through
this as great friends.
[laughing]
[woman] Okay I'm going to
refer to you by your colors,
in case I forget your names.
Of course.
So white, please put on the
ski mask.
[metronome clicking]
[woman] Interior, large room of
an
old Dorset estate, afternoon,
a lectern stands, Michel
speaking to the conference
group.
He wears a ski mask,
super, Dorset, England, May
15th.
"They call us terrorists, why?
Because we must deliver
our bombs with our hands.
We don't have any American
airplanes to drop them from.
We don't have any American
tanks to shell their towns with,
this Israeli tank commander
who fires his cannon into our
camps,
killing our women and our
children, burning their skins.
This Israeli tank commander
is considered a hero.
But when we strike, the
only way we know how,
with our hands, we're
called terrorists, yes."
" Hold on there, you
Palestinians
are running the richest
revolution in history."
"No, no, money is irrelevant.
The question is, who is
right and who is wrong?
And the Palestinians have been
wrong."
"Even with one Palestinian
left alive, we will fight.
We will fight with what weapons
we have.
What we ask is the return
of what was taken from us,
by force or by terror."
[woman] Now moving to page 10,
the middle of the recruitment
scene.
Ah, Miss director, is my
identity still protected?
In the next scene, you're
no longer playing Michel,
also known as Salim.
Instead, you are Joseph, the
Arab-Israeli
Mossad agent, posing
as the terrorist Salim,
under the pseudo-name Michelle.
So now you're not playing
Salim, but playing someone
who is himself playing Michel
and Salim.
They've just confronted Charlie
for lying.
This is the interrogation,
interior, large upper floor
room, Athens safe house, night.
Charlie is flustered, having
just been caught in a lie,
unsure what happens next.
This German-Jewish
Mossad, is he berating her?
Is he aggressive?
She's expecting to be
chastised,
but Kurtz instead is very
comforting.
So he's toying with her
a little, that's promising.
I thought you'd like that.
"You did well Charlie,
congratulations.
You took a dive but you
recovered,
you lied, you lost your way.
But you hung in there
and when the line broke,
you threw a tantrum
and blamed your troubles
on the whole world."
The line.
The line.
When Kurt says,
"The line broke, the line."
Think of it as a line
that connects the story
that she tells about
herself with the truth,
more of a link.
So this is the link
that we're looking for.
The link between the self and
the truth, that's the link?
Yeah.
[M.Dahan] You were just
playing another actor,
-playing an actor.
-[Karim] Yeah, I was an actor
-playing an actor.
-[M.Dahan] Yeah.
playing an actor.
[M. Dahan] Yeah.
But that actor is not
me, he's another actor.
[M. Dahan] I know,
it's okay, it's not you.
You know that thing
of how many steps am I
removed from Kevin Bacon?
I think it's awesome.
I have the same amount of
removal to,
from Kevin and Bacon to myself.
Okay, okay, okay.
"You hung in there and when the
line broke,
you threw a tantrum
and blamed your troubles
on the whole world.
We're proud of you.
Next time we'll think you
up a about a story to tell.
She's everything we want,
she's bright, she's creative,
she's underused, a romantic.
A liar.
So who's complaining?
Tonight she lies for herself,
tomorrow she lies for us.
We want an angel all of a
sudden?"
Charlie's eyes are wide with
unaccustomed vulnerability.
Kurtz backs off, Joseph takes
over.
"So?"
"So?"
"So, so I lied.
I don't see what that has
to do with my politics."
Sorry, does she know who
these people are yet?
No, not completely.
She does know that she's being
recruited.
She just can't distinguish
between Joseph, Michel and
Salim.
"So I lied,
I don't understand how this
has to do with my politics."
"Possibly, they're as
much as a lie as your past."
"Goddammit, I care, I believe
in things.
I believe in helping end the
suffering."
"What have you done, really,
hmm?
Gotten yourself filmed
in one demonstration or
another in Trafalgar Square.
What have you done besides
talk?"
Joseph/Michel/Salim gets
up from behind the table
and crouches before Charlie.
"Listen to me, both
sides have their madmen.
They have some who would
drive us into the sea.
Then you have others who
would wipe the other side out
and they have the weapons to do
it.
And some of us, want both
sides to come together Charlie,
we want the Palestinians
to have their own homeland."
[woman] Charlie has lost her
fight.
"Do you want to go back to
England?
Block traffic in Trafalgar
Square?
Or do you want to do something
about it?"
[woman] He lets the
question linger in the air.
"The audition is over, Charlie,
the part is yours if you want
it."
Who do I play?
"Yourself, we take care of the
plot.
Joseph plays Michel,
writes the dialogue with
a lot of help from you.
But who's the real Michel?
I'm sorry, Miss director, does
Joseph?
And Michelle and Salim?
Yes, does Joseph, Michel and
Salim,
do they believe her?
Doesn't matter, they're Mossad,
they're trained to be paranoid.
You're really getting
caught up in the performance.
Yeah, I'm supposed to get
caught up in the performance.
Yeah, but you're not really
Mossad.
Did you find the link?
Did you find what you were
looking for?
It's not so simple, we'll do
it again.
And if I were Mossad, you
wouldn't know.
Am I Mossad?
Why all the chess puffing, huh?
You're just playing.
Unless you have to prove your
legitimacy that you exist.
I don't need legitimacy.
I exist, therefore, I am
legitimate.
I play the Israeli facets of
Juliano.
This guy Kurtz, the Mossad,
It's a complex character,
and I can bring some
of my experience to it.
So it's only reasonable
that I should play the Mossad,
right?
Excuse me, this Charlie,
she is not really making much
sense.
She doesn't even know
what she believes in.
I have too much sense
to play this part well.
[Marty Kurtz] You're
finally here, safely among us.
[Charlie] What the hell is
this?
[Marty Kurtz] My name
is Marty, not Leslie Gold.
You are a trusting person,
I took advantage of you.
Some of us you have met in
Mykonos.
[Charlie] You, you lying
bastard!
[Kurtz] Charlie, the
man you've named Joseph
is the most loved and
legitimate son of his country.
[Charlie] What country,
Israelis?
[Kurtz] Unless of course
it's your conviction, Charlie,
that Israel should be swept
under the sea?
Is that your conviction,
Charlie?
[Charlie] Israelis, huh?
Audition, what sort of
audition?
[Kurtz] We put the
string of questions to you.
You answer them very
frankly, very truthfully.
Don't embroider or try to come
to us.
She's naive, she's
performative, she's...
everything's a show.
Maybe the show, it's not naive.
Maybe she's in control the whole
time.
[Karim] No way, she's a
shapeshifter.
That's why I cast her as an
American.
Annie Hall, 'lah-dee-daa',
Manhattan.
"I'm from Philadelphia,
I'm from Philadelphia."
There's no way, she's hollow.
That's why you'd be perfect for
it.
Excuse me?
Yeah, you're here to
play the public persona.
The public figure, a lot
of talk, yappidy yap.
Not just to talk, look at the
activism.
Yeah but, you are the one
who talks about the activism,
talks about the theater,
-talks about being Muslim.
-[Public Juliano] Yeah.
-Talks about being Arab.
-[Public Juliano] Yeah.
You are not the one
who does these things.
[woman] Remember, you are
playing a type,
facets of a character.
Yeah, his type is the
type that talks a lot.
The talk is the
activism, don't you get it?
[Israeli Juliano] No.
The persona is the activist.
Maybe activism is just a
persona.
[Adam] Yeah yeah, I'm
just trying to implement
Juliano's personality into the
scene.
Exactly.
'Cause in this scene he's--
He's an actor who kind of
courted his own madness, right?
He pushed it, so that's why I'm
saying,
like, try to--
[Public Juliano] Wait a
second, is that why I'm here?
The empty persona?
Is that it?
I'm at least a public figure,
like a, the real human being.
Look at these.
They're like caricatures of
the Arab and the Israeli.
[woman] Let's try the scene
again, okay?
-[groans]
-You in the black, I'm so
sorry.
The names are escaping me
again.
You'll play Charlie,
white, please play Marty.
And that means,
you are gonna be playing the
Arab-Israeli agent, Joseph.
No, all you want to do is,
you want to see an Israeli
as a naive American actor.
You want thousands of years of
culture
dilapidated into this
juvenile vacuous identity.
You want, you want a
fox to play a chicken.
That's what you want.
You know what makes sense to me?
American Charlie, Israeli
Mossad, allies.
Politics aside, how can an
Israeli
play this character with no
chutzpah?
And you for your information.
If it wasn't for Mossad, America
couldn't tell the weather.
We teach them everything
they know about war.
[Arab Juliano] Come on, you're
not just
playing the stereotype, are you?
But that's exactly what I'm
saying.
She's a vacuous, empty,
stereotype.
Come on, you're making it so
obvious.
Of some kind of,
wishy-washy activist.
And I have something to
bring to her character,
which you can't.
[Arab Juliano] You're bringing
nothing
-to her character.
-Which he can't.
So let me do my job.
-[Arab Juliano] Putting it out
there.
-So we can get
-the hell 'outta here.
-[Arab Juliano] Making it
-very obvious.
-Alright, children, please!
Page four, also switch your
clothing.
Maybe this time we can find the
link.
[]
[Public Juliano] Again?
[Karim] Anachnu-kol-anu,
yehudi ki-hashem yehudi
[Adam] Nachna-el-yihud--
[Karim] Nachna- Kul-na-yihud--
[Adam] Kul-na-yihud--
[Karim] [-'la-alna-yihudi'.]
[Adam] la-alna-yihudi.
[Adam] I know a lot of prayers
and poems in Arabic.
[recites in Arabic]
Is that Mutanabbi?
[recites in Arabic]
Yaba Di bi di bi di bi
Di bi di bi di bi dum
All day long
Hey biddy biddy bum
If I were a wealthy man
Wait, what language is it?
Arabic.
I don't understand a word he
just said.
Yeah, pre-Islamic poetry,
habibi.
It's when Arabs used to have
fun.
Now we have to work hard.
Ya ba dibby dibby
Dibby dibby dibby dum
Did you know this one?
All day long
[sings in Arabic]
[Karim] We can't match this
guy,
because all we know is like,
"Nagila Hava"
which is like really too
simple.
[Adam] That's bedouin song.
Were you a spy?
[laughing]
I feel like you might have been.
[metronome ticking]
[woman] Let's rehearse,
let's rotate parts.
Let's substitute, let's play.
Substitution will provide the
link.
[Arab Juliano] Ah sorry, sorry.
You keep looking for a
connection, yeah?
Keep saying we're trying to find
a link.
[woman] Yes, exactly.
When will we know?
When will we find this link?
We have to rehearse
until we've found a bridge,
until we've found a kissing
point.
[Arab Juliano] A bridge?
My dear, we're in a fucking
tunnel.
Let's rehearse, substitution
will prove the link.
Charlie enters a room,
which has been emptied
of most of its furniture.
There is a trestle table
in the center of the room,
and sitting at the table
are Kurtz and Joseph,
there are papers and press
clippings on the table.
[door slams shut]
"Charlie, you're safely here
among us."
"What the hell is this?"
He's shaking her hand
vigorously.
Really?
Vigorously?
[woman] Well, only
in Loring Mandel's screenplay
from 1983,
in the film made from the
screenplay, by George Roy Hill,
there was no vigorous
handshakes.
[Israeli Juliano] But wait,
the film is based on a book.
[woman] Of course, the
screenplay was adapted
from John LeCarre's original
novel.
In the book, Kurtz is
described on page 128 as,
"Seizing Charlie's hand
in his powerful grasp
and shaking it before
she could prevent him."
Miss director, which one
is closest to the truth?
The truth?
[Adam] I do have a question
though.
[M. Dahan] Yeah.
So we have a whole page
about this handshake.
[M. Dahan] Yes.
Can, I don't get it.
[M. Dahan] Well, we're talking
about
whether it happened in
reality or in fiction.
[woman] Okay, I'm not sure it
matters.
I mean, this is a work of
fiction.
No, but hold on, he has a point.
I mean, it's known that
LeCarre was a spy for 15 years,
and that Charlie is based
on Janet Leigh Stevens,
the journalist.
So maybe, maybe a
handshake did take place.
And his name was
actually David Cornwell,
not even John LeCarre.
[M. Dahan] Now we're talking
about,
not just the film that you guys
are playing the scene from,
but the original screenplay,
and not just the screenplay
that you guys are playing the
scene from,
but the book that the
screenplay was based on.
[woman] Look it's possible,
one choice is more
truthful than the other.
[M. Dahan] And not just
the book that the screenplay
was based on, but the real
story that John LeCarre used
for Janet Leigh Stevens.
There's no way to know which,
whether it's vigorous shaking
of the hand or no shaking.
And the fact that John LeCarre
wasn't even a real person.
Are you gonna ask any more
questions?
[metronome clicking]
Okay, let's go.
"You're a trusting person,
Charlie.
I took advantage of you."
"You lying bastard!"
"I trust that you will not
immediately foam at the mouth
when I tell you,
we're Israelis."
"Israelis, huh?
Well, you've made some sort of
mistake.
You've got the wrong girl, I'm
not a Jew.
I'm pro-Palestinian.
Do you wanna leave the
poor fucking Arabs alone
and give 'em back the land
you're stole from them?
No state, no home, no
identity, no right to work."
"What would you have us do,
Charlie?
Take a piece of North Africa?
Maybe Egypt?
That didn't really work out
well for us the last time.
I'm offering you a part, an
acting job."
[Israeli Juliano as Charlie] "In
acting?
In what, for fuck's sake?"
"Think of it as a, the
theater of the real."
[Israeli Juliano As
Charlie] "Do I have a choice?"
"You have the choice to
leave anytime you want.
We put you through a string of
questions.
You answer very frankly,
very honestly, very
truthfully, don't evaluate.
If you still want to leave
after that, that's your option."
Alright, alright, okay.
Okay let's do it, just come on.
Let's get on with it."
Come on, they're asking
her to be truthful, yeah?
But them, they're full of lies.
This Charlie, she can't trust
them,
they're not a very honest
people.
Why the spy stuff?
I don't understand.
Why this scene?
[Karim] Yeah, we are making a
conceptual film
about the different
parts of Juliano, right?
So him one Juliano, him and him.
Why the spies?
What's with the spies?
Well, because they think
he was collaborating in Jenin
with freedom fighters.
That's what they said.
Okay, the appropriate
terminology is terrorist.
-That's not freedom fighters.
-[Arab Juliano] No, no, no, no.
His students, his students were
actors.
They didn't make a choice
to pick up that rifle.
Really?
[Public Juliano] Come on.
You sure about that?
Zakaria, Ashraf, Yuossef,
Allah, Nidal?
All terrorists.
[Israeli Juliano] Youssef--
Do your research, man.
Broke Juliano's heart.
When Juliano was watching this
video
of Yousef doing a martyrdom
video,
he broke his heart.
On the other hand, who
do you think shot him?
I don't know, you tell me.
If it wasn't the community?
Because he was defiling their
religion and their principles
and liberating, emancipating
their women
and going against all of their
traditions.
-[Arab Juliano] So wait.
-Who do you think shot him?
Who are you talking about?
You think the Palestinians did
it?
What we know is that
they all doubted him.
What they said about him in
Jenin
was that he was probably coming
here to build the community
as a means to spy on them.
[Arab Juliano] Okay, the same
thing.
That's what the children said.
[Mousa] That's what the
Israelis thought, too.
They thought he was a
spy for the Palestinians.
How do we know that the
Israelis didn't do it?
I don't think the problem
was that he was spy.
Come on, Habibi.
The old Jews would've killed
him as much as the old Muslims.
-[Karim] No, but listen--
-You can't say
it was one without thinking
that it might be the other.
Listen, we know that he was an
activist
and a public figure, right?
That's fine, but why a spy?
Even the kids, the
kids from the theater,
the kids he raised.
[Public Juliano] Yes, but--
They all thought he was a spy.
That's what they said about him
in Jenin.
[Mousa] What is the connection
to Juliano?
What does it have to do
with the real Juliano?
Juliano's connection to this
film is the first connection.
It begins all connections.
The beginning of Juliano as
a persona in Western cinema.
As a background, junior
Mossad agent with 14 lines
named Julio.
Where is he in the script?
I don't see him in the script.
Juliano is in this
scene, he has no dialogue.
He appears for 77 seconds.
[Adam] Yes.
[woman] The link exists.
He's a background actor
for God's sakes, that just.
It's, it certainly
doesn't make a connection.
This is a conceptual film.
And the author felt there was
some historical resonance.
Historical?
A link, historically,
this was his first role in a
major film.
So let's switch, let's do it
again.
Now we're completely out of
order.
[]
Okay Yael, kapara
Just excuse me for one minute.
You come walk with me
for a minute, please.
[Public Juliano] Huh?
Just a minute of your time,
come here.
This conceptual film,
this, this, whatever.
This is, this script.
Yeah.
It's, who even knows
what that means, right?
Am I right?
Not exactly.
No but, you agree that
something isn't working?
I agree that there
is a lot of work to do.
Yes, but how much work?
A lot, repetitions, a lot of
them.
Is there even the possibility
of an end?
How do we know when to stop?
We have to trust the director,
I guess.
How do you think she
even knows when to stop?
Hey, is there a problem?
[Public Juliano] Listen,
we're taking her on her word,
right? We need to find
bridges, links, kisses.
[Israeli Juliano] Yeah,
bridges, links, kisses.
But we're completely lost.
We're in the middle of
the Sinai without LSD,
we don't know where we're going.
Okay well, maybe we can ask
to have some work on
the script, something?
No, a rewrite?
Bismillah, not a rewrite.
Hell no, we do not
bring Allah into this.
[Israeli Juliano] Listen.
-[Public Juliano] Wait a second.
-[Israeli Juliano] No, no, no,
no, no.
No, wait a second.
Maybe this is exactly what.
-[Israeli Juliano] No.
-We're supposed to do.
No, no, we're never
gonna get out of here.
We bring God into this, listen,
the simplest idea, the
simplest solution is,
you play the public
persona, I play the Mossad
and let the Arab play the Arab.
-I'd like to be included.
-[Public Juliano] No, I do not
feel comfortable.
We're actors in a film.
Hello, I'd like to be included.
[Israeli Juliano] It's harder to
work with an Arab
because they're more sensitive
to the analogy with the dog.
[]
You cannot let your neck be cut
as a gesture for your neighbor,
even if he's a good neighbor.
[sighs]
I don't know, no, I don't know.
It's your neck.
Miss director, I'd like to
be included in this, okay?
Hey, Miss director, come
outside and do your job.
Whoa hey, 'wallik' I'm talking
to you!
[]
[Insults in Arabic]
Come outside!
[Israeli Juliano] Habibi.
[Arab Juliano] Sure, habibi?
Why don't we just stick to the
types?
We know how to play these
types, we can stick to them.
These types, these old
parts, these terrorist parts?
If they're so good, why
don't you fucking play them?
If you play him,
you get to play Joseph, Michel
and Salim, it's exciting.
He's an Arab-Israeli who
betrays his own people.
Charlie leads him into a
camp of freedom fighters.
Why would I wanna play this
person?
No, no, no.
He's a spy, it's layered.
Well habibi, he's a turncoat,
okay?
If he's so layered,
if he's so good, why don't
you play him, big man?
I want to play--
-Why don't you play him?
-A strong and terrorist,
-in "Rage and Glory"
-Yeah?
I played a Palmach
in Amos Gitai's "Kedma"
and I died on screen
as a Jewish terrorist.
And don't touch me.
I'm willing to bet that he
died more as a fucking Arab.
Don't fucking touch me.
[Arab Juliano] [speaks in
Arabic]
I'll punch you in the fucking
face.
-[Public Juliano] Hey.
-Don't touch me.
Do you wanna hit me in the face?
-Hit me in the face.
-You don't touch me.
[Public Juliano] Guys, listen!
She's not even here.
The director is not even
here, we're, we're what?
This is what they want us to
do, we are writing the script.
This is probably what they
wanted,
for us to argue like that.
Write the script you know,
just make up the story.
So this is bullshit,
I'm telling you,
if they're using any line
from this whole thing,
I'm calling the union.
Hey guys, guys.
I think they're filming it.
[Public Juliano] They're
filming this?
Yeah.
No, no, I think we're still in
the film.
[]
What is this thing?
What are, there's cameras
everywhere.
I'm telling you, this.
[M. Dahan] Right, but it's like,
"Hey, hey, hey."
There's a kind of kinesthetic
reaction.
-It's like, boom!
-[door slams shut]
[]
New pages.
[footsteps]
[door clicks shut]
-I am not--
-[thuds]
[Public Juliano] And you're
fucked.
I'm not fucking starting from
scratch.
[Public Juliano] Okay, okay, my
friend.
-Fuck this shit.
-My Israeli friend.
You are--
Don't touch me, don't touch me,
Jesus.
-Listen to me.
You're lacking compassion.
Don't talk to me about
compassion.
-Just trust the process.
-Yeah,
don't talk to me about process.
We've been in process since
Sumeria.
Hey, but Oslo was
part of your compassion.
Oslo as an act of compassion
towards the Palestinians.
You weren't even seen before
Oslo, you didn't exist.
-[Arab Juliano] Oh.
-You weren't even acknowledged.
And the idea of Israel is a,
is compassion towards
the 6 million, 6 Million.
[]
I don't even want to say the
word.
[Arab Juliano] Please, say it.
[Adam] Because Arafat is
Egyptian.
[Karim] Is he?
Yeah.
Well, it's a little.
-No, no.
-[Arab Juliano] Say it!
No, it's always
convenient for you 'peeble'
to heap accusations on Israel.
[Arab Juliano] Ah, there it is.
[Mousa] It's one version of it.
What's the other version?
He was born in Egypt, but
he was raised in Palestine.
[Arab Juliano] You people, huh?
You 'peeble', is the way that
you,
your 'peeble' referred
to the other 'peeble'.
You people, who's the
anti-Semite now?
These are your words, not mine.
It's a little, uh.
I don't need this kind of
compassion.
This bitter compassion followed
by some ferocious derision.
Divide and delay, delay and
divide.
That's like me saying saying
that I'm not Palestinian.
'Cause I was born in New York.
Yeah you're not divided,
with your Force-17
and your FLP and your PLO and
your Hamas,
-Okay, guys.
-and your Shabab
-and ACSA and your Quds.
-You see?
You see what I'm talking about?
And your Iran money and Qatar
money.
-You say one thing--
-and Lebanese money.
Okay, stop, divide.
Can you stop this?
I want to know in the 80's,
what did you do in Beirut?
Oh my God, the 80's?
[Israeli Juliano] Where were you
in Beirut in the '80's?
The '80's.
You were in Beirut like
you own the fucking place.
That wasn't a form of invasion?
Assalam aaleykum, Assalam
aaleykum,
What happened in war--
You walked around like
you own the fucking place.
Is he Israeli or Lebanese?
[Juliano Mer-Khamis] But those
poor people didn't know it.
They think if they replace
the Israeli occupation
with Arafat occupation
it's gonna be better.
[Karim] It's almost
like he's with him both,
'cause he can talk to them
both,
but he's against them both in a
sense.
[M. Dahan] Yeah, yeah, yeah.
That's all you know, that's
what's left of your culture.
So it's a plague on both your
houses.
Fight both of them.
[Karim] And the ability to
talk to both.
Guys!
Let's remember what we're
doing here.
We're getting off track, stop--
Yes, let's set the record
straight.
[Arab Juliano] I don't know how
they could justify one murder,
one sacrifice, one cat.
These fucking people, they
learned.
They learned really well.
It's 'forboden', 'forboden'.
I'll tell you how it's
justified.
Because when God gave us
the concept of sacrifice,
it was because in order to
survive,
sometimes you have to
kill the thing you love.
And so there was a lesson in
sacrifice.
[Juliano Mer-Khamis] Hey,
hey, Israel
Hey, hey, Israel
[Israeli Juliano] Your
bitterness and your victimhood
is just an expression of your
narcissism, that's all it is.
My Arab bitterness is
what makes the scene,
like your Israeli bullying
and his American duplicity.
That's what you want, Charlie is
a liar.
Kurtz is a bully.
Hey, hey, Israel
Territorial continuity is
impossible,
unless we get on the same
page of who's playing whom.
Now we're talking about
territories.
Wait, what is that?
[Yael] We map the scene, we
choose the roles.
We agree on that choice, and
we continue into the scene.
Territorial continuity.
[Public Juliano] Okay, so this
is the question, yes?
Yeah, you get it?
This is the question, are
we sovereign individuals?
Do we choose our own roles?
We are not sovereign
individuals.
We're all part of the whole,
we are all part of Him.
She's told us that, she's
told us that before, Amen.
Praying
We're all part of him,
we're all part of the whole.
[Juliano Mer-Khamis] Six!
-We're all part of Him.
-[Juliano Mer-Khamis] Seven!
-We are not disconnected.
-[Juliano Mer-Khamis] Eight!
We are not sovereign,
I can do it in Sufism.
We're not disconnected,
we are not part of him.
We are all part of one, we
are all part of the one.
[Arab Juliano] Ms Director.
[Juliano Mer-Khamis] Hey!
We should be independent of
each other.
[Juliano Mer-Khamis] Hey, hey,
hey!
It can't be otherwise.
[Yael] It's like a clock with
gears.
Each of you make it work,
or a triangle, you are the
three points.
Work here, be our
slaves, shut the fuck up.
Kissing points.
The Palestinians, 22 years did
it.
Kissing points.
[Yael] Let's watch the scene
again.
Hey, Hey, Israel!
Hey, hey, Israel
They say--
Kissing points, kissing points.
['Barakatoh!']
Intifada!
[metronome ticking]
[Kurtz] You gave an
interview, Ipswich paper,
describing your standing
outside his cell block,
waving to him.
[Charlie] I was saucing it up.
[Kurtz] Yeah, you sauce it up.
Your father died in
prison, not at home at all.
More saucing it up.
[Charlie] I hate you!
I hate all of you, anyway,
I'm getting 'outta here!
Wait a minute, you told me
that I could listen and leave,
now I want out and I want out
now!
[Kurtz] Your options will be
exercised at specific stages.
And only when we invite you.
[Charlie] You bastard!
[Kurtz] She gets
three minutes, not more.
She does not change her dress
or put on some new identity.
[Charlie] No!
[Kurtz] She comes straight
back--
[Israeli Juliano] I think
we can just calm down.
We don't have to be so heated.
We can be parts of the
same body, the same person.
We can live in peace,
it doesn't bother me.
[Arab Juliano] Which peace?
The peace of the brave or
the peace of the hostage?
Yael, why don't you just
pitch us as antagonists?
You see this energy between us?
He doesn't like me, I don't
like him, we can use that.
Just funnel it into the work.
You know what it is?
You don't like what you see in
the mirror.
I don't want to be your mirror.
[metronome clicking]
I wasn't given a choice.
We all have choices to make,
we can make things better.
Oh my God, you're always playing
the peacemaker, you know,
-you're trying to make peace.
-Ah, here we go.
But what do you do?
You buy him all his toys.
You give them money for
missiles, what do you give us?
Money to rebuild.
They destroy us, we
build ourselves back up.
It's cyclical with you.
[Public Juliano] What do you
want?
I wanna go home.
Hey, he wasn't asking
you, I want to do the scene.
Okay.
I don't want him or him
telling me what to do.
You're the director, why
didn't you come out and direct?
You should be telling us
what to do and no one else.
You know, when I was a
child, Israel was a legend,
not a reality.
[Arab Juliano] Yeah?
Yeah, she emerged from a dream.
[Arab Juliano] A dream?
More like a fucking nightmare
for us.
[Israeli Juliano] But
that should inspire you.
Inspire us?
[Israeli Juliano] You can create
your own reality.
Our own reality out of your
dream,
which is our nightmare?
-Come on.
-A separate reality.
You react like this
because your anger is deep.
All of you, very deep.
Look, I'm not your mother.
I can't help you with these
squabbles.
That's not my part to play.
Just remember that these
attachments
are very loosely based on the
truth.
So the links, they were.
Yeah, they're loose, they're
not secure.
They come with a number of
substitutions.
So now you're saying,
that there is a finite
number of substitutions
and that we're looking for loose
links?
So you're admitting to the fact
that there is no solution to
the problem you've created.
It's impossible and
you've just admitted it.
It's impossible!
[Yael] Another repetition,
please.
Repetition, why?
There's no solution.
There's no need for repetition.
-Are you insane?
-Interior.
[Israeli Juliano] Get us 'outta
here.
-Call somebody.
-Athens safehouse.
You call Braxton, call Emily.
-[Yael] The interview continues.
-Call Batman, get that,
get us 'outta here!
[suspenseful instrumental music]
[Yael] It is late in the night,
everybody's perceptively worn
down.
The questioning continues.
[Public Juliano] "So now we ask
you to continue in your own
words.
You give an interview, Ipswitch
paper,
describing your standing
outside his cell block,
waving to him."
"Yes, so?
I was saucing it up."
"Your father died in
prison, not at home at all.
More saucing it up, did you sign
anything?"
"No."
"Statements?"
"No."
-"Petitions?"
-"No."
"But Charlie always at the
end, after the discussion,
there is a resolution to
be signed, be reasonable."
"I have no idea what you're
talking--"
"Tell us what was
discussed at these forums."
"I don't know."
"Her diary does not--"
"Where did you get that?"
"Charlie, my confidence in you
is ebbing."
"Well, it can goddamn ebb."
"I hate you and I hate all
of this, I hate all of you!
-No, no, no!"
-"Charlie, Charlie."
-"I, I no, wait--"
-"Charlie, Charlie."
"You said, listen, you
said I could leave, that I--"
"You went to public school in
Ames, Iowa.
Not some fancy private school in
Virginia.
But why don't you give us your
trust?"
"Trust?
You Goddamn bastard, no!"
"Charlie, Charlie."
"Trust, trust!"
"She gets three minutes, no
more.
No changing the identities, I
want the engine kept running.
She's everything we want.
Bright, creative, underused,
romantic."
"A liar."
"So who's complaining?
Today she's lying for herself,
tomorrow she's lying for us.
What, we want a angel suddenly?"
[suspenseful instrumental music]
[metronome clicking]
[Yael] Later, they wait.
[Adam] It's not that simple.
[Karim] A real person, not a--
[Adam] Not that simple,
not that simple,a Mossad.
[Karim] They call us hedonists!
[Adam] A Mossad, an American.
Why?
[Adam] An Arab.
[Karim] Monologue.
It's not that simple.
Arab Juliano, public
Juliano, three Juliano's,
three of us, a triangle,
Can somebody teach
me how to be an actor?
[Adam] Arab Juliano, Public
Juliano.
Three Juliano's, three of us.
-A triangle.
-[Karim] I haven't
forgotten your--
[Adam] Three messiahs.
[Yael] An impasse, tension.
[Adam] All claim the
origin, the story of God.
[Yael] No one makes a move,
-each waits for the other.
-[Adam] Keep it simple.
-A Mossad, a Muslim, an Arab.
-[Yael] Each contemplates
an anticipated certainty.
[Arab Juliano] A Mossad, an
American, an Arab.
-[Michel] They call me Michel.
-[Charlie] No.
[Yael] Anticipates a
contemplated uncertainty.
[Charlie] No, not again.
[Michel] Charlie.
[Charlie] I'm tired Michel.
[Yael] Which do you choose?
[Adam] Jewish, Muslim?
[Yael] Charlie or Martin?
[Karim] Why no real estate
problem?
[Charlie] No.
[Michel] In the village of
Deir Yassin on April 9th, 1948.
[Adam] Arab Juliano, public
Juliano, three Juliano's.
-[Yael] Martin or Joseph?
-[Adam] Three of us, a
triangle.
Three messiahs.
[Michel] Old men and children
were butchered by Zionist
terror squads.
I love you, share my cause.
[]
[Yael] Black or white?
[Adam] Three messiah's.
[Michel] Does it play?
Three are claiming the origin--
[Yael] Joseph or Salim?
[Adam] The story of God.
[Charlie] Yes, please.
[Yael] Israel or Palestine?
[metronome ticking]
[]
At the risk of sounding
obsessively redundant,
may I ask you to cast me as the
Mossad?
It's simple and it fits.
[Public Juliano] It's not so
simple,
an American, a Mossad, an Arab,
three, a triangle,
a Jew, a Christian, a Muslim, a
triangle.
Three of us.
Israeli Juliano, Arab
Juliano, Public Juliano.
Three Juliano's, another
triangle, yeah?
Don't you get three messiahs?
Three all claim the origin
of the story of God.
It's not that simple.
[Yael] Three Christs
could not come to any resolution
about their authority,
meeting each other didn't
help them see the truth.
It only hurt them.
Yeah, we could come to see
that I am the Palestinian
Juliano.
I'm not the Israeli Juliano.
I am not him because I know he
is not me.
We coexist in, in this hell,
this fantasy.
I don't pretend to be able to
imagine
what it's like to be
Palestinian.
I don't want to be you either.
So no problems there.
What I'm saying is,
we could live peacefully if
safely.
You get to say that because
you have the advantage.
You have the military,
you control everything.
Where is my safety?
I have one leg to stand on,
if that...
Safety!
Well, the world is short of
perfect, but we want peace.
-[Mousa] Huh.
-Just not at any price.
-[Arab Juliano] Peace.
-And yet we're still here
and there is no way out
of here but this scene,
for God's sakes, for Elohim
sakes.
For Allah's sakes, let's
try this, let's try this!
[footsteps]
[Public Juliano] What?
[metronome clicking]
[]
I've noticed a knot.
You know...you know, perhaps
he's right.
Perhaps there's only one
leader, one configuration.
But we haven't exhausted
all of the substitutions,
and so we have to try again.
And I think I figured out
the knot in this triangle.
It's the two of you.
You seem to be having the most
difficulty.
Which one of the
difficulties we're having,
are you referring to?
So the two of you right
now, another scene here.
Would you mind stepping outside?
Can't I be part of the problem?
You're not the problem,
the problem is with them.
It's okay.
All we talk about is Arabs and
Jews
and Palestinians and Israelis
and oh, what about people?
I'm also a human fucking being
that just like, you know--
So the only human here is not
needed and not considered.
That is the problem.
[door clicks shut]
[Yael] Which role would you
choose?
Joseph or Charlie?
Black or white?
Zero or one?
Israeli or Palestinian?
I want to play the Palestinian.
Even if he's Mossad, I want
to play him in the scene.
[]
Let him play the American.
Israelis and Americans are equal
bullies.
It's a good part for him.
It's a good part for me?
It's a good part.
We'll see if it's a
fucking good part for me.
[]
[Mousa chuckles]
Well then, the Israeli
plays the American.
[Israeli Juliano] Oh yeah,
"The Israeli plays the
American."
Did you see that?
You're a walking contradiction?
[]
[metronome clicking]
[Yael] Interior, Greek
hilltop taverna, night.
Charlie and Joseph face each
other
across one half a dozen tables.
"Listen to me Charlie, my name
is Michel."
"No, not again.
I'm tired of Michel.
Give him a break.
Can you just be Joseph for
tonight?"
"Charlie, we haven't got time.
Sooner or later they're gonna
question you about tonight."
"Okay, okay, alright.
So you're Michel."
"I'm also an Arab named Salim.
I was born into a family
of a small village,
not far from the town of Khalil,
the Jews, they call it Hebron.
Can you say it, Charlie?
Khalil?"
"Khalil."
"Have you heard of Deir Yassin?"
"No."
"In the village of Deir
Yassin, April 9th, 1948,
252 women, children,
old men...
Listen!"
Ugh.
-"Were killed by Zionists."
-"I can't."
-"who came into the town."
-"Oh, come on."
"There is a story of a
baker in his own bakery.
Zionist shot his young
boy, then told the baker,
"Put your son inside the oven.""
"My God."
"After Deir Yassin massacre,
half a million Palestinians
left their villages.
But not my father, no, my
father,
he's stayed in command in
his village until 1967.
Until the Israeli tanks came in,
shelled everyone, destroying
everything."
"Oh, God."
[Arab Juliano] "Why?
To make room for settlements."
"I can't."
"Settlements for people
who weren't even born on the
land that my father lived on,
and his father and his father
before him.
[metronome clicking]
Have you ever heard the words,
"I fight, therefore I exist"?
You know the man who said this?
A Polish terrorist.
This Polish terrorist, they
gave him a Nobel Peace prize
and he is now the prime
minister of my country,
the country they call Israel.
I love you Charlie,
share my cause, fight with us."
[metronome clicking]
This part in the script
with a female Charlie,
it sounds funny that I
am saying to him that,
"I love you."
No?
Why, because it's a negotiation?
What do you mean, a negotiation?
It's like a romantic experience,
you have to impress, you have to
seduce.
And why are you afraid of love?
I'm not afraid of love.
Sometimes you have to
close a little bit your eyes
because if you see everything
too naked,
you may lose your taste.
Let me ask you something.
Does it play?
Who are you?
Does it play?
[]
Who are you?
Which one?
Israeli tank commander.
Yeah, it plays.
[metronome clicking]
[pages rustling]
[Yael] We're getting
closer to the problem.
Let's finish with a monologue.
She has chosen
The Gods to sacrifice
Ms. director,
I am ready to accept whatever
choice you have made,
your strategy, all this.
I even forgot which facet
I'm playing at this point.
Maybe we don't have so much to
remember.
What we remember is how to
forget.
It's easy when you get to
speak your pain out loud.
[]
[indistinct chatter]
Tell him we're looking for
bullets
and one comes up every time.
Perhaps he's right, perhaps
there is only one lead.
[Israeli Juliano] So you are
telling a story across time.
[]
If you could wait outside.
Wow.
[Salome] You see, we've
been looking for that,
and one comes up every time.
[Israeli Juliano]
Basically, you see a sequence
and you see it chronologically
and you see it fragmented.
[Salome] Perhaps he's right,
perhaps there is only one lead.
[Israeli Juliano] In time.
[Salome] One configuration.
[metronome ticking]
How long must I wait?
[]
[man] I'm telling them about
how I'm gonna end my life.
A bullet from a fucked up...
[engine whooshing noise]
-[gunshot]
-Palestinian
and she's gonna find me
dead on the doorstep.
[metronome clicking]
Ms. director, they
told me I had the lead.
I was here on time, I mean--
[]
[Salome] And one comes up,
every time.
[Israeli Juliano] So you
have a simultaneous experience
and also a chronological
experience.
Something that extends.
[Salome] We haven't yet
exhausted all of our
substitutions.
My old friend.
[]
Hey...
just whisper soft enough.
[]
Thank you.
-[]
-[metronome clicking]
Goodbye, Juliano.
[footsteps]
[]
-[]
-[metronome clicking]
[door clicks open]
[door clicks shut]
[]
[Karim] I have a big decision
to make here,
about the accent.
I think it'll be interesting
if I did it with my own voice,
this one,
almost to bring universality.
[M. Dahan] Yeah we've, and
also we've stripped down.
-Yeah.
-[M.Dahan] all of
-the different
-Yeah, exactly.
comportments that you're
layering.
-Exactly.
-[M.Dahan] This is like.
So now I have to find my own
voice,
which, who am I? [chuckles]
Yeah.
[Yael] It's the monologue in
Dorset, Salim/Michel.
It's the real one.
The real character?
Well, possibly, originally in
the novel
or before existing as the
life of a real person,
or some portion of an event of
a life of.
So a real person, not a
character?
The link is fixed?
The connection is solid?
[Yael] Israeli Juliano tries to
find
the comportment of a bomb
maker's brother,
interior, large room of
an old Dorset estate.
Michel, the real Michel,
speaks to a small crowd of
seated graduate students
and wannabe political
activists.
"They call us terrorists...
why?
Because we must deliver
our bombs with our hands.
We have no American
planes to drop them from.
We have no tanks to shell their
towns,
the Israeli commander who fires
his cannon into our villages
so that the flesh of
our women and children
is burnt off their skins.
That Israeli is called the hero.
But when we strike back
the only way we can, with our
hands,
we're called terrorists.
If the Israelis give us their
airplanes,
we'd give them our suitcases.
With only one Palestinian
left alive, we will fight.
We will fight with what weapons
we have.
We ask for justice, that's all."
[metronome clicking]
[squeaking]
Did we find the link?
Is the connection fixed?
Not all the way, but
we are getting there.
How is the connection fixed?
Because an Israeli had to do a
monologue
written for a jihadi?
That can't be last thing
to say on the matter.
I didn't promise you would
be satisfied with the outcome.
All of this going around in
circles,
all these permutations,
to come to the ridiculous
conclusion
that because I play the
Israeli facets of Juliano,
I have to do a monologue
given by a terrorist?
What is your objection?
It's not an objection, it's
reality.
We're a nation, nations are
violent,
Syria as a nation, as young as
ours.
Do you call a Assad a terrorist?
Do you call Obama a terrorist?
This is a game of
semantics you're playing.
You can't call us
terrorists, we're a nation.
You need to clear your
thoughts.
You're carrying a lot in your
head,
all this constant back and
forth.
The three of you actors
constantly fighting.
Go outside, forget your
grievances,
and your attachments and your
anger.
Clear your mind like the sky is
blue.
Come back as if you haven't
been here.
You're right, I don't forget.
I can't forget.
I have a responsibility not
to forget, we can't forget.
Yes but here right now,
remembering is not helping, is
it?
Maybe I'm remembering too much.
Too much fighting.
What do we remember, anyway?
This war, that war.
Who killed whom and why?
History is practically written
in red ink.
It's a history of killing.
[static]
For the moment, try
to put away the past.
History never repeats
itself in the same way.
You have to trust me.
Maybe there was a need for it,
when people were making
a living from the land
and were fighting for the land.
But today, when you live on
science...
and technology,
you don't need wars,
you don't need killings.
So I believe I would prefer
to educate the children
about the history of the future
and not the history of the past.
Clear your thoughts, your
memories, we'll try again.
Let's get at this problem
in a different way.
Let's, let's do the monologue
as if we do not remember
what has gone on before.
Go outside and come back.
Only, when you're not
carrying so much...
[metronome clicking]
memory.
[metronome clicking]
[metronome clicking]
[door clicks shut]
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