The Jewish filmmaker whose films about Palestinians and Iranians are financed by Israel

BarcelonaThe first thing that surprises about Reading Lolita in Tehran, a drama about a group of women who meet secretly in 1980s Iran to study classics of English literature, is directed by an Israeli filmmaker and financed – in part – by public money from Israel, the same country that a few months ago exchanged missile launches with IranDirector Eran Riklis (Jerusalem, 1954), who is presenting his film at the BCN Film Fest this Saturday before its official premiere on July 20, was aware of the contradiction. "However, I'd already made films about Palestinians and Druze [a religious minority with Muslim roots], and I loved the novel on which the film is based, so I contacted the author via Facebook," he explains. "Of course, the first question was whether it made sense to her that an Israeli seemed like an idea."

In Riklis, who with the award-winning The lemon tree (2008) created a lucid parable of the conflict between Israel and Palestine, and he found it easy to empathize with women who, despite loving their country, feel increasingly alienated by their government, to the point of contemplating exile. "That's the big question: do you stay and fight or leave?" says the director. "I was born in Israel, and I've lived there all my life. I feel like I can't leave. But the situation of my actresses is different: some left Iran to avoid jail or to avoid being beaten." This is the case of the lead actress, Golshifteh Farahani, who went into exile when she acted with Leonardo DiCaprio (a Web of Lies, in 2008) put her in the regime's crosshairs; in 2012, she was officially exiled for appearing half-naked in a magazine. Farahani plays a literature professor who returns to her country in the wake of the Islamic Revolution and discovers that the new Iranian society does not tolerate literature and critical thinking. "Golshifteh said that this film would be a new dossier to add to the file the Iranian secret services already have on her," says Riklis.

Obviously, the film was not shot in Iran, but in a Rome disguised as Tehran. "We shot in Italy because the money was Italian," admits Riklis. "Two art directors told me it was impossible to do, so I didn't work with them." The director is very satisfied with the result. "Many Iranians have seen the film and asked me how I managed to shoot in Iran," he explains proudly. And with a mischievous expression, he adds: "I always answer: 'The Mossad, you know. We have our methods.'"

Laugh so as not to cry

Humor is one of Riklin's weapons for surviving the "difficult period" his country is going through. "It's said that a sense of humor saved many Jews, but not the six million from the Holocaust," the director quips, advocating for "a delicate balance" between "taking life with humor and taking it seriously." And although he claims that "a certain amount of optimism is necessary when making films," he acknowledges that the current situation invites pessimism. "What we're seeing in Gaza seems like the end of the world," he says. "October 7th was a catastrophe, incredibly violent. But the military response is completely out of control. There are a lot of people in Israel who aren't naive or stupid and who are demanding an end to the war. But there are also a lot of people who are saying, 'And in Gaza, everyone!'" According to Riklis, "in Israel there's an internal war between two sides, like a Barcelona-Madrid match. I wish we had elections and the government would change, and the Palestinian government too, because both are pitiful."

Riklis's critical stances haven't caused him any problems working in Israel so far. Despite shooting his recent films abroad, he has always done so with public and private Israeli funding. "I've been asked about this since 1991, when I presented [the film] in Venice. Final quota, about an Israeli soldier who shares his passion for the 1982 Italian national team with the Palestinians who took him prisoner - he explains -. But it is true that the situation is now very delicate." Riklis meets the owner of an Israeli cinema chain, a man "rather right-wing" who has always invested in his films. When he explained the arguments ofThe lemon tree either Reading Lolita in Tehran He had no problem with it. But when he told her a few months ago that he wanted to adapt the book by Israeli author AB Yehoshua The tunnel, he didn't want to know anything. "And the book is about an architect, it doesn't even mention the tunnel between Gaza and Israel! But no, there's no way," he laments.