I’m watching archive footage from Hebron and I hear breathing. Not on the footage itself but on the shots in between the different clips. Someone holds a notebook with the date of the images I’m about to see in front of the camera. Simple but effective.

Is that your breathing Talia ? Maybe not because now I catch a glimpse of a thumb? and a slightly too long nail tells me that this must be a man’s hand.

So it’s Ram ! Hello Ram !

Ram ג€“ who made the not so long in distance but long in time and traffic

drive from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv during the evening rush hour. To find us a military uniform

for Yehuda to wear.

Yehuda is the man whose portrait we were filming. We needed something that

looked like the clothes he was wearing when he was a soldier with the Israeli Defense

Forces.

In Jerusalem we had found this long corridor with very grey doors on one

side and big dusty windows on the other ג€“ great slanting light. We wanted Yehuda

to put on the uniform at the end of the corridor.

A flashback to the past. We’d done or tried to do the same thing with the other witnesses

in our film ג€“ in El Salvador, France, Canada, New York, Moldova & Afghanistan.

But in the end we didn’t have time to make the shot. Yehuda had to

rush of. Yehuda ג€“ always late because always held up at his previous meeting

that also started late because the meeting before that had started late

as well.

Such is the life of the founder of Breaking The Silence ג€“ an organization

that gathers testimonies of IDF soldiers about what life in the Israeli

armed forces is really like.

Yehuda is to Israel what Diogenes was to Greece.

Diogenes walked the streets of Athens carrying a lamp in the daytime ג€“ claiming to be

looking for an honest man. Yehuda walks the streets of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv

holding a big mirror ג€“ saying to his fellow country men & women : ג€œHave a good

look at yourself. This is what we do. This is what’s being done

in our name. In Hebron. In Gaza. By your sons and our daughters.ג€

You have to be able to catch him though ג€“ with his mirror ! At least as a camera crew

you do.

Together with Talia and Ram we waited for Yehuda one night on a parking lot

half way between Hebron and Jerusalem. In the end he showed

up just after we had left.

By the next morning Talia had tracked him down and shooting continued as if nothing had happened.

Pick up Yehuda from Jerusalem.

Drive to Hebron. Yehuda constantly on the phone.

Film in Hebron with Yehuda.

Yehuda talking on his mobile in between shots.

Drive Yehuda back to Jerusalem for a meeting ג€“ while we stayed in Hebron

to shoot B-roll. Ram drives. Talia stays.

Pick up Yehuda from Jerusalem again and bring him back to Hebron.

Film Hebron at night with Yehuda.

Have a bite. Tasty wraps out of a Palestinian kitchen. Where?

Only Yehuda knows…

Israeli’s are hard working people!