Full Description
Life as a Rumor is a documentary autobiography of Assi Dayan, the son of renowned Israeli general Moshe Dayan and one of Israel’s most prominent film directors and actors. Sixty-five-year-old Dayan knows he is at the end of the line. Physically run down, the prolific filmmaker is still blessed with a raspy booming voice and a gift for words, which he uses to intertwine the trials of war with the struggles of founding fathers and rebellious sons. The famously one-eyed Moshe Dayan was a hulking presence in early Israeli politics, and he was also the guiding force in the life of his son. Assi Dayan tells of his father’s emotional distance and a family legacy that both aided and overshadowed him. Archival footage and intimate family photos illuminate Dayan’s career as an actor, writer and director who won nine Ophir awards, the Israeli Oscars. But the film is at its most powerful when focusing on Dayan’s shortcomings. With candor and crispness, the flawed man describes his bouts with mental illness and drug addiction and his struggles as a husband and father. The result is an unabashedly honest portrait of a man at the end of his life looking back with both pride and regret. Assi Dayan passed away in May of this year, but his memory remains indelible.
North American Premiere
