While Natalie Portman is obviously known for her acting career, it’s clear she has ambitions behind the camera as well. She’s helmed two shorts so far, perhaps most notably a segment in 2008’s “New York, I Love You,” but now she’s made an entire feature-length effort. Titled “A Tale of Love and Darkness” which she also wrote and adapted from the memoir, the movie is about a writer, journalist, and advocate of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Portman herself also stars and the movie features Gilad Kahana, Shira Haas and Makram Khoury. Here’s the official synopsis:
Based on Amos Oz’s international best-seller, A TALE OF LOVE AND DARKNESS is the story of Oz’s youth at the end of the British Mandate for Palestine and the early years of the State of Israel. The film details young Amos’ relationship with his mother and his birth as a writer, looking at what happens when the stories we tell, become the stories we live.
Here’s the Amazon synopsis of the memoir.
A family saga and a magical self-portrait of a writer who witnessed the birth of a nation and lived through its turbulent history. A Tale of Love and Darkness is the story of a boy who grows up in war-torn Jerusalem, in a small apartment crowded with books in twelve languages and relatives speaking nearly as many. The story of an adolescent whose life has been changed forever by his mother’s suicide. The story of a man who leaves the constraints of his family and community to join a kibbutz, change his name, marry, have children. The story of a writer who becomes an active participant in the political life of his nation.
“A Tale Of Love And Darkness” will make its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in a “special screening” section. Above, the first look of the film, below, a sales poster from the fansite Natalie Portman.com
