Metamorphosis of a Melody

A play directed and filmed in Gibellina, Sicily, in July of 1992.

It is an adaptation of a text by Flavius Josephus “The War of the Jews,” and of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

“The War of the Jews” is an account of the destruction of Jewish sovereignty and of the first Jewish city, Jerusalem, in 70 ad. The Masada story is about the suicide of 700 men, women, and children. They decided to die rather than become slaves of Rome. After Jerusalem had fallen to the Romans, Masada continued the rebellion. The Romans had already destroyed most of the country and exiled massive parts of the population, but they were obsessed with this tiny country, Judea, and the Roman general went back just to conquer this insignificant mountain in the middle of nowhere. This disproportion in the Masada story made it an excellent myth for the new state to grab. Modernity recycles many of the old myths and the Masada mythology is one of them. It had been totally forgotten for centuries. The Diaspora was not interested in a suicidal mythology.

Amos Gitai, in Yann Lardeau, Les Films d’Amos Gitai, unpublished

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Cast Hanna Schygulla, Samuel Fuller, Enrico Lo Verso, Jérôme Koenig, Ophrah Shemesh, Masha Itkina, Mariella Lo Sardo, Alberto Scala, Roberto Burgio, Paola Pace

Texts Flavius Josèphe, Rainer Maria Rilke, Oscar Wilde, The Bible, Hans Magnus Enzensberger
Adaptation Rivka Markovitzky-Gitai Cinematography Peter Missoten, Yürgen Persun, Mathias Vanbuel
Editing Peter Missoten Sound Michel Boermans, Hans Helewaut Lighting Enrico Bagnoli
Music Simon Stockhausen, Markus Stockhausen Costumes Ophrah Shemesh

Production Agav Films, T.l. Lyon Métropole, CNC (France), Commune di Gibellina (Italy), Université catholique
de Louvain (Belgium) Line producers Laurent Truchot, Éléonore Feneux