Mythologies and collective memories

**Films : Esther (1985) ; La Guerre des fils de lumière contre les fils des ténèbres (2009), Golem, l'esprit de l'exil (1991), excerpts**

At the time, I was living in Paris and I made it a rule not to make documentaries about Israel while I was there. I wanted to start writing fiction. I decided to start with a biblical text, The Book of Esther. I was attracted by its beauty, its simplicity, its structure. In previous generations, Jews have used this text as an extended territory : members of communities scattered all over the world, in different geographies and under different regimes, have continued to study and meditate on it while being separated or exiled from their original territory. I say to myself : why not me ? Why not look at this text, which becomes metaphorical if I take it from a non-religious point of view and apply it to a form of fiction ? I have an intimate knowledge of it, it resonates in my mind, that's a good start. That's the attraction of the text. But then, there's what keeps me away from it. I always need these two movements to start a project. So I look for an indirect angle to observe reality, an indirect or parabolic structure. And Esther's story offers this possibility. And thirdly, I like to hijack existing mythologies, to question the validity of certain established truths. In the collective memory, the story of Esther is that of the victory of an oppressed people who free themselves from their oppressors. But we often forget the end of the text : that of the useless revenge told by the biblical scribe. I want to recall this forgotten part and question the cycle of revenge and the permanent permutation of oppressor/oppressed.

Esther (1985)

Conceived as a series of tableaux vivants, Esther is my first feature film and the first part of my " trilogy of exile " (with Berlin-Jerusalem and Golem, l'esprit de l'exil).

The War of the Sons of Light against the Sons of Darkness (2009)

This film, based on The Jewish War by the ancient historian Flavius Josephus, tells the story of the end of Jewish sovereignty in Palestine in 73 AD, after the war against the Romans, the capture of Jerusalem, the destruction of the Temple and the fall of Masada. Jeanne Moreau plays Flavius Josephus in this production, which premiered at the Avignon Festival (2009).

I will report exactly what happened on both sides, but in my reflections on events, I will let my feelings show and I will let my personal pain express itself on the misfortunes of my homeland. For it was internal dissensions that destroyed this homeland, and it was the Jewish tyrants who drew down on the Holy Temple the blows and torches of the Romans who wanted to spare it [...]. And since this is no stranger's fault, I could not hold back my lamentations. If anyone refuses them any indulgence, let him put the facts to the account of history and the tears to the account of the historian.

Flavius Josephus, The Jewish War, trans. from the Greek by P. Savinel, preface by P. Vidal-Naquet, Paris, Éditions de Minuit, 1977

Golem, the spirit of exile (1991)

Based on the Spanish Kabbalah's interpretation of the Golem - the Golem, incarnation of exile and wanderers - the film Golem, l'esprit de l'exil explores the contemporary meanings of the biblical Book of Ruth.

The biblical text of Ruth takes as its starting point a documentary story : a family from Bethlehem suffers famine and emigrates to Moab, the " new land of exile ". But the Bible's narrator turned this event into fiction. And it became more than fiction : a sanctified myth. [...] I have placed the mythological implications in today's context. The question of creation is the general framework of the film, and within that framework, there's a constant back-and-forth to the question of exile. The theme of the Golem is my way of examining the question of cinematic language. In Golem, l'esprit de l'exil, the central question is that of uprooting, which is the common thread running through the entire trilogy.

Amos Gitai, in Yann Lardeau, Les Films d'Amos Gitai, unpublished

Guest speaker : Alain Schnapp

Alain Schnapp is Professor Emeritus of Greek Archaeology (University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne), and former Director of the UFR d'histoire de l'art et d'archéologie. He helped create the Institut national d'histoire de l'art (INHA), of which he was the first director general from 2001 to 2005. He has been a visiting professor at the universities of Princeton, Naples, Perugia, Cambridge, Santa Monica and Heidelberg. He is a corresponding member of the German Archaeological Institute and was awarded the prize of the Association of Greek Studies in 1988). His research activities focus on three distinct fields : the anthropology of the image in ancient Greece, the history of archaeology and the urban study of cities and territories in the Greek world. He has also coordinated a research program on a comparative history of ruins (FMSH/ENSBA/Paris 1/ITEM). Alain Schnapp has published numerous works, including : L'Archéologie aujourd'hui (Hachette, 1980), Archéologie, pouvoirs et sociétés (CNRS, 1984), Le chasseur et la cité : chasse et érotique en Grèce ancienne (, Albin Michel 1997), a Guide des méthodes de l'archéologie (in collaboration), La conquête du passé, aux origines de l'archéologie (Carré, 1993 and 1998), L'histoire ancienne à travers 100 chefs-d'œuvres de la peinture, with François Lebrette (Presses de la Renaissance, 2004), Ruines - Essai de perspective comparée (Les presses du réel, 2015), Piranèse ou l'épaisseur de l'histoire(INHA, 2017), and very recently, Une histoire des civilisations. Comment l'archéologie bouleverse nos connaissances, with Jean-Paul Demoule and Dominique Garcia (La Découverte/INRAP, 2018).