Jewish-American director Bryan Singer, of the famed X-Men franchise, is scheduled to direct and produce a documentary on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with the working title "In the Middle of the Middle East."
Singer, one of the most successful and busiest directors in Hollywood, is expected to dedicate time for the project in the coming months. He will join his partner for the enterprise, Israeli director Yariv Horowitz, who directed the 2012 Israeli drama Rock the Casbah and introduced Singer to the hero of the documentary: an Arab-Israeli youth from Nazareth whose video supporting the State of Israel after the kidnapping of three yeshiva boys went viral last summer.
The boy, whose emotional support was unique, demanded draped in an Israeli flag that the "terrorists who kidnapped our boys" return them, a move that caught many conflict observers, both domestically and abroad, by surprise.
"You better do it now" the boy implored the abductors in three languages Hebrew, English, and Arabic ending his remarks with the age-old call "am Israel chay!" The clip by the Arab-Israeli boy, a relative of a well-known politician in the Arab sector, received thousands of furious responses.
Ever since that day, his life had turned upside down. At first, he and his mother were alienated in their neighborhoods; later, he started receiving threats on his life. Because of the risk, he was forced into hiding (which is the only reason why his name has not been revealed) and fled, likely to the United States.
But the distance hasn't stopped the opinionated youth from publicly expressing his remarks and even expanding on them both on social media and in articles about him (he even once mentioned his wish to serve in the IDF). Now, it appears, he will continue to do in a documentary film revolving around his life.
In the assorted articles about him, the teen explains that he did not upload the clip in a bid to provoke, but out of concern for the fate of the abducted a concern shared, he said, with all Israelis.
His message also carried the fear of the consequences to follow from the murder of the three teens fully justified given that the news of the tragic fate of the three youths led to a cruel retaliatory murder of a Palestinian boy who was burned alive; two weeks later, the IDF engaged in Operation Protective Edge.
The documentary will be produced by Singer and Guy Shalem, in coordination with Same Name Productions, run by Suri Ellerton and Sarah Ben Yair. The film is scheduled for release in 2016.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on August 11, 2015
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