A Slim Peace is a new documentary about the first ever nutrition and weight loss group of Israeli and Palestinian women. Directed and co-produced by filmmaker Yael Luttwak, the film premiered at the Tribeca and Jerusalem film festivals.
A Slim Peace has been a passion of mine for over half a decade. I lived and worked with Israelis and Palestinians in 1999 and, along with my Palestinian and Israeli counterparts, we produced an unprecedented teen television talk show filmed in Israel and in Palestine. With the collapse of the Camp David peace accords in 2000, many Israelis and Palestinians felt they had lost their chance for peace. Out of intense disappointment sprang my idea to use the universal obsession with losing weight as a way of showing the humanity and the humor in the Middle East. I combined my own experience of attending Weight Watchers in Tel Aviv with the conflict that raged almost daily. Despite the conflict, I was determined to make an Israeli/Palestinian documentary film that is insightful, entertaining, and fun.
Yael Luttwak graduated from the London Film School, specializing in directing, and recently assisted Oscar-nominated filmmaker Mike Leigh on his last project. Two of her short films have been awarded Best Films of the School, nominated for various film festivals, and are distributed worldwide by Brit Shorts. A Slim Peace is her first documentary and feature length film.
Reviews:
May 13th 2007
Tribeca
A Slim Peace
(Docu -- U.K.)
By JAY WEISSBERG
A Discodog Prods. production. (International sales: Film Sales Corp., New York.) Produced by Charles Lambert. Executive producers, Ben Funnell, Andrew Herwitz, Davide Romieri. Co-producer, Yael Luttwak. Directed by Yael Luttwak.
Novice helmer Yael Luttwak uses the universal desire for weight-loss as the perfect excuse to bring Arab and Israeli women together in "A Slim Peace." Clever premise flies, thanks to strong personalities overcoming budgetary limitations and a certain lack of structure, with real progress made until the daily realities of a divided Israel overwhelm the giant steps forward made by women trained to fear the other side. Docu's novelty should earn it a popular place in Jewish fests as well as small-screen broadcast.
Body language says it all at the first meeting of a diet support group composed of highly educated Palestinians, secular and religious Jews, and Bedouins: the discomfort is tangible as women who would never even look at each other are forced to confront their fears of the other. Getting settlers to sit down with Ramallah residents was Luttwak's biggest challenge, but over the course of six sessions, the women not only lose weight but bridge their ingrained mistrust, highlighting just how geopolitics artificially narrows perspectives and sows seeds of hatred. Though the outcome one year later is less than hoped for, the applications are huge.
Camera (color, HD), Yvonne Miklosh; editors, John Mister, Carol Salter; music, Avshalom Caspi; sound, Tomer Blayer; sound design, Peter Hodges. Reviewed at Tribeca Film Festival (World Documentary Competition competing), May 4, 2007. English, Hebrew, Arabic dialogue. Running time: 60 MIN. REUTERS REPORT
1min 12secs
WASHINGTON POST
April 27th 2007
Amid Turmoil, Mideast Cinema's Subtle Shadings
By Ann Hornaday
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, April 27, 2007; C01
If "Making Of" displays unabashed artiness, two much more rough-edged documentaries exemplify another part of the cinematic spectrum. Yael Luttwak's "A Slim Peace" is a cinema verite account of a group of Israeli and Palestinian women who find common ground in -- where else -- losing weight. After organizing a group of women interested in losing a few pounds, the filmmaker, the women and two dietitians get together for weigh-ins that inevitably become political consciousness-raising sessions.
Some encounters are predictable (Jewish settlers meeting their first West Bank dwellers), but there are some unexpected twists: a Sephardic Jewish woman reveals that, as an indigenous Arab, she feels much more akin to the Palestinian women than the American settlers. A Bedouin woman breaks out of that tribal stereotype -- of a deeply sexist and insular culture -- and turns out to be the film's most self-empowered feminist.
Inadvertently true to its title, "A Slim Peace" offers a relatively slender sampling of the myriad issues and histories that weave through contemporary politics in Israel. And although it suggests the possibility of communication within that freighted context, it also hits obstacles, such as when one of the Jewish settlers suspects one of her new Palestinian acquaintances of destroying an Israeli playground. Despite the obvious optimism of Luttwak's enterprise, her film ultimately suggests that the hardest habits to break aren't about food, but the psyche.
"A Slim Peace" touches on the migratory nature of identity in Israel; that theme also suffuses the heartbreaking documentary "9 Star Hotel," which provides an intimate look at migrant workers in that country.
For more reviews and further infromation about the film see www.aSlim Peace.com.
A Slim Peace has been a passion of mine for over half a decade. I lived and worked with Israelis and Palestinians in 1999 and, along with my Palestinian and Israeli counterparts, we produced an unprecedented teen television talk show filmed in Israel and in Palestine. With the collapse of the Camp David peace accords in 2000, many Israelis and Palestinians felt they had lost their chance for peace. Out of intense disappointment sprang my idea to use the universal obsession with losing weight as a way of showing the humanity and the humor in the Middle East. I combined my own experience of attending Weight Watchers in Tel Aviv with the conflict that raged almost daily. Despite the conflict, I was determined to make an Israeli/Palestinian documentary film that is insightful, entertaining, and fun.
Yael Luttwak graduated from the London Film School, specializing in directing, and recently assisted Oscar-nominated filmmaker Mike Leigh on his last project. Two of her short films have been awarded Best Films of the School, nominated for various film festivals, and are distributed worldwide by Brit Shorts. A Slim Peace is her first documentary and feature length film.
Reviews:
May 13th 2007
Tribeca
A Slim Peace
(Docu -- U.K.)
By JAY WEISSBERG
A Discodog Prods. production. (International sales: Film Sales Corp., New York.) Produced by Charles Lambert. Executive producers, Ben Funnell, Andrew Herwitz, Davide Romieri. Co-producer, Yael Luttwak. Directed by Yael Luttwak.
Novice helmer Yael Luttwak uses the universal desire for weight-loss as the perfect excuse to bring Arab and Israeli women together in "A Slim Peace." Clever premise flies, thanks to strong personalities overcoming budgetary limitations and a certain lack of structure, with real progress made until the daily realities of a divided Israel overwhelm the giant steps forward made by women trained to fear the other side. Docu's novelty should earn it a popular place in Jewish fests as well as small-screen broadcast.
Body language says it all at the first meeting of a diet support group composed of highly educated Palestinians, secular and religious Jews, and Bedouins: the discomfort is tangible as women who would never even look at each other are forced to confront their fears of the other. Getting settlers to sit down with Ramallah residents was Luttwak's biggest challenge, but over the course of six sessions, the women not only lose weight but bridge their ingrained mistrust, highlighting just how geopolitics artificially narrows perspectives and sows seeds of hatred. Though the outcome one year later is less than hoped for, the applications are huge.
Camera (color, HD), Yvonne Miklosh; editors, John Mister, Carol Salter; music, Avshalom Caspi; sound, Tomer Blayer; sound design, Peter Hodges. Reviewed at Tribeca Film Festival (World Documentary Competition competing), May 4, 2007. English, Hebrew, Arabic dialogue. Running time: 60 MIN. REUTERS REPORT
1min 12secs
WASHINGTON POST
April 27th 2007
Amid Turmoil, Mideast Cinema's Subtle Shadings
By Ann Hornaday
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, April 27, 2007; C01
If "Making Of" displays unabashed artiness, two much more rough-edged documentaries exemplify another part of the cinematic spectrum. Yael Luttwak's "A Slim Peace" is a cinema verite account of a group of Israeli and Palestinian women who find common ground in -- where else -- losing weight. After organizing a group of women interested in losing a few pounds, the filmmaker, the women and two dietitians get together for weigh-ins that inevitably become political consciousness-raising sessions.
Some encounters are predictable (Jewish settlers meeting their first West Bank dwellers), but there are some unexpected twists: a Sephardic Jewish woman reveals that, as an indigenous Arab, she feels much more akin to the Palestinian women than the American settlers. A Bedouin woman breaks out of that tribal stereotype -- of a deeply sexist and insular culture -- and turns out to be the film's most self-empowered feminist.
Inadvertently true to its title, "A Slim Peace" offers a relatively slender sampling of the myriad issues and histories that weave through contemporary politics in Israel. And although it suggests the possibility of communication within that freighted context, it also hits obstacles, such as when one of the Jewish settlers suspects one of her new Palestinian acquaintances of destroying an Israeli playground. Despite the obvious optimism of Luttwak's enterprise, her film ultimately suggests that the hardest habits to break aren't about food, but the psyche.
"A Slim Peace" touches on the migratory nature of identity in Israel; that theme also suffuses the heartbreaking documentary "9 Star Hotel," which provides an intimate look at migrant workers in that country.
For more reviews and further infromation about the film see www.aSlim Peace.com.