UK, ITALIA

SHOSHANA

2023 – DCP – color – 119’

Direction: Michael Winterbottom

Screenplay: Michael Winterbottom, Laurence Coriat, Paul Viragh

Cinematography: Giles Nuttgens

Editing: Marc Richardson

Set design: Sergio Tribastone

Original score: David Holmes 

Cast: Douglas Booth (Tom Wilkin), Irina Starshenbaum (Shoshana Borochov), Harry Melling (Geoffrey Morton), Aury Alby (Avraham Stern), Ian Hart (Robert Chambers)

Producers: Melissa Parmenter, Josh Hyams, Luigi Napoleone, Massimo Di Rocco

Production: Revolution Films, Bartlebyfilm con with Vision Distribution in collaborazione con in collaboration with Sky, Prime Video

Italian distribution: Vision Distribution

synopsis

Inspired by real life events, Shoshana is a political thriller set during the 1930s in Tel Aviv, a new Jewish city of European origin built on the shores of the Mediterranean. Through a relationship between Thomas Wilkin and Shoshana Borochov, the film reveals how violence and extremism are capable of separating two individuals, forcing them to choose sides.

As a member of the counterterrorism team of the British-Palestinian Police Force, Wilkin joins Geoffrey Morton in the hunt for an underground leader, a charismatic poet named Avraham Stern. Stern firmly believes that the establishment of the state of Israel must necessarily include violence, and Wilkin and Morton become his primary targets.

Like many others in Tel Aviv, Shoshana is a modern, progressive feminist who despises the policies of Stern and his followers, however as a violent climate intensifies, she will be forced to take sides with whom she wants to fight.

the director: Michael Winterbottom

Throughout his career, Michael Winterbottom has directed three films nominated in Cannes for the Palme D’Or, seven nominated in Berlin for the Golden Bear and one nominated in Venice for the Golden Lion. While in America, 18 of his films have premiered at the Toronto International or Sundance Film Festivals. In This World received a Golden Bear in Berlin and a BAFTA award for Best Foreign Language Film, while The Road to Guantanamo received a Silver Bear in Berlin for Best Director and a British Independent Film award (BIFA) for Best Documentary. Wonderland won a BIFA for Best Film and Genova a Silver Shell for Best Director at the San Sebastian Film Festival. Six of his films have been nominated for BAFTA, with three of them winning. Michael Winterbottom has also held the position of Visiting Professor in Film Studies within the Humanitas program at Oxford University. He is also an Honorary Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford and an Honorary Doctor in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Bristol.

director’s statement

“Shoshana is a project that commenced 15 years ago when I was at the Jerusalem Film Festival with Joshua Hyams (producer) for the award ceremony of A Mighty Heart.

The film told the story of Marianne Pearl, engaged in a tireless search for her husband Daniel who had been kidnapped in Pakistan, and therefore a short retrospective of our films had been organized for the occasion. While I was there, I read Tom Segev’s book, One Palestine, Complete, an excellent account of the period between the two World Wars during the British Mandate in Palestine.

This reflects a long-neglected, if not forgotten, part of the British colonial journey, yet central to Israel’s history. As I was reading, the U.S. occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan was still going on, which in some ways echoed the mistakes made by the British in Palestine.

With Joshua we immediately dove into the project by traveling to Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, examining the wonderful archives of the Spielberg Film Institute and collaborating with our Israeli researcher, Hila Baroz.

The story of Shoshana Borochov and Tom Wilkin seemed to us a perfect starting point for our film, because it highlights how violence and extremism manage to create divisions between individuals, forcing them to choose sides.

After many years of trying, it is perhaps no coincidence that we finally managed to finish at a time when the subject matter is more relevant than ever, not only in relation to recent events in Israel itself, but also in regards to Brexit thrusting us into separate camps in England, the Trump area in America and the ongoing tragedy in Ukraine.”

filmography

1988 Ingmar Bergman: The Magic Lantern (doc)

1994 Butterfly Kiss

1996 Jude

1997 Benvenuti a Sarajevo (Welcome to Sarajevo)

1998 I Want You 

1999 Wonderland

1999 With or Without You

2000 Le bianche tracce della vita (The Claim)

2002 24 Hour Party People

2002 Cose di questo mondo (In This World)

2003 Codice 46 (Code 46)

2004 9 canzoni (9 Songs)

2005 A Cock and Bull Story

2006 Road to Guantamano

2007 Un cuore grande (A Mighty Heart)

2008 Genova

2009 The Shock Doctrine (doc)

2010 The Killer Inside Me

2010 The Trip

2011 Trishna

2012 Everyday

2013 The Look of Love

2014 The Trip to Italy

2015 The Emperor’s New Clothes

2015 Meredith: The Face of an Angel

2018 The Wedding Guest – L’ospite sconosciuto (The Wedding Guest)

2019 Greed

2022 Eleven Days in May (doc)

2023 Shoshana

awards and festivals

2023 Toronto IFF – Official selection

2023 Dinard Festival du Film Britannique –The Past is a Foreign Country

2023 BFI London FF – Competition