2023 Diaspora & Art Film Festival - Meet the director Leon Prudovsky

Meet the director Leon Prudovsky in anticipation of the New York premiere of his feature film My Neighbor Adolf. Q&A moderated by Regina Khidekel. Quad Cinema, July 1st, 2023, view via YouTube

Diaspora & Art Film Festival --- Special Event co-hosted by Cohen Media Group

RSVP here: russculture@aol.com  | Reception in the Quad Bar

Dark Night by Leon Prudovsky

Israel | 2005 | 30 min | Russian, Hebrew, English subtitles

Cast: Pini Tavger , Helena Yaralov,  Eran Amichai, Joni Arbid

Editor: Evgeny Ruman

Two Israeli soldiers escape from Palestinian fighters. They take an Arabic couple as hostages and hide in their house in the Palestinian territory. The fighters are still searching for them outside and the hostage situation seems like a dead end, until suddenly the captures and the hostages find something in common. Will it bring to a solution?

Director’s statement

I belong to the kind of filmmakers who think that filmmaking is not just about storytelling, but it’s about telling YOUR story, a story about a place you know better, and it’s also about saying something about this place.

I made this film to say something about the place I live in, about the conflict my society is stuck in. I felt obligated to tell this story, because it is my story, and as an immigrant in this society I felt that I can deliver to the viewer from the most objective point of view – a point of view of a person who sees the problem partly from within and partly from outside.

Although there have already been made films about an Israeli-Palestinian conflict, I have a unique human story that shows the problematical character of the conflict. I am trying to show that there are no guilty or innocent; there just is a problem that keeps hurting people from both sides despite the nationality.

Welcome and... Our Condolences by Leon Prudovsky

Israel | 2012 |27 min | Russian, Hebrew, English subtitles

Cast: Ola Schur-Selektar, Gera Sandler, Irit Kaplan, Vitaly Voskoboynikov, Yigal Adika,

Anabella Danka Yaakov, Roza Livshitz

Editor: Evgeny Ruman

1991. The beginning of the massive Jewish immigration wave from the USSR to Israel. 12 years old Misha is documenting his family's journey on a home-video camera. The already traumatic immigration experience is enhanced up to absurd proportions, when the family's old aunt dies on the plane just before they reach the land of their ancestors. Now, the family will have to go through various levels of bureaucracy with an immigrating corpse...

Director’s statement

In 1991 I immigrated to Israel from Soviet Union. My father gave me a camera so I won't get in the way of my parents, who were busy and stressed, so I started to shoot. 23 years later, I decided to make probably the most intimate film I have ever done, and probably I will ever do. I decided to tell the story of my immigration, in my comic way, but nevertheless truthful, based on my memories, what it was for a 12 years old kid to change his home, his country, his language and culture. 23 years later I feel I can look back, with my adult point of view, with my understanding of the society I live in, and tell this story, a story of wishful expectations and absurd reality, a story of helplessness in front of the unknown, a story of the old and the new worlds, the story of immigration.

I chose to tell from the same point of view, of me 23 years younger and I even used some shots I have made back then, combining those documentary shots it with the “staged” mockumentary ones, hoping to get the closest feeling to what I remember.

Leon Prudovsky was born in St.-Petersburg, USSR in 1978, and raised in Israel. He emerged in 2005 with his diploma film from Tel Aviv University DARK NIGHT - a voted finalist at the Student Academy Awards™ and a winner of dozens of awards worldwide, including Special Mention in Venice Film Festival. In 2009 he co-wrote and directed his first feature film “Five Hours from Paris” which was presented at the Toronto Film Festival and received awards in Haifa, Nice and Napoli. During the next 10 years he directed television series in Israel, Russia and France. His second feature film MY NEIGHBOUR ADOLF premiered at Locarno’s Piazza Grande in 2022, opened Tallin’s Black Nights Festival and has been distributed to more than 20 territories. Leon writes his own scripts, while also directing projects written by others, and serves as a script consultant and artistic adviser at different Film Funds. He is based in Tel Aviv and Paris and fluent in English, Hebrew, French and Russian.

Selected filmography: 2022 My Neighbor Adolf – 93 min. Locarno Piazza Grande, Tallin Opening, Palm Springs etc. 2019 L’attaché (co-directed) – 10 episodes, 40 min. HOT, Acorn TV, Starzplay; Israel, France. 2015 Family Album – 14 episodes, 50 min. Channel 1. Russia. 2012 Welcome and our Condolences - 30 min. Channel 2 Israel. Awards worldwide 2010 Troyka – 4 episodes, 45 min. HOT TV. Israel. 2009 Five Hours from Paris – 92 min. Toronto FF. Awards in Haifa, Napoli, Nice. 2005 Dark Night - 30 min. Student Academy Award finalist. Awards: VENICE, Beijing etc.

Russian-American Cultural Center programing is made possible by part with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council, the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, Cojeco and Tianaderrah Foundation.