2024-03-21 17:45:00
The dramas surrounding the participation of the Israeli delegation in the international poetry competition have not stopped in the last month, and it is likely that Israel’s path to the stage in Malmö in May will still be fraught with challenges. After the saga of the approval of Aden Golan’s singing, who represented Israel at Eurovision, by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), ended, “Hurricane” went on the air, about two weeks ago, and as soon as it was revealed, it aroused enthusiasm in the world and excitement among the Israeli audience.
The person behind the music video is the promising young director Ofir Peretz. The opportunity to direct one of the most anticipated, talked about and invested music videos of the year fell upon him on a clear day. Only three weeks before the filming of the music video, Peretz received an application to join the project, which at the time was shrouded in secrecy and a cloud of uncertainty.
In Peretz’s portfolio so far one can find mainly advertisements and commercial works, so entrusting the task in the hands of a young creator, in such a complex year, is not self-evident. “The person who approached me is Shay Bonder, a legend in the field of screens in Israel. I worked with him before on a music video for Anna Zak at Festigal and a connection was formed between us. It was crazy that they trusted me to direct the music video, it’s a rare moment in my career. Not only was I given the option, I was told: “Come do what you want.”
Behind the scenes, and against the background of the reports of the hesitations of the European Broadcasting Union, things unfolded quickly within a tight schedule that changed all the time. “The secrecy of the process was not as embarrassing as a cabinet meeting,” says Peretz. “I met with the people concerned and they played me the song, October Rain, at a meeting held at 11 at night in the office in the basement. I listened to the song and I just really shuddered. I looked at Yoav Tzafir and told him I felt like I was in a dream.”
The director Ofir Peretz. The creator behind the music video for the song “Hurricane” by Aden Golan
“They asked me: ‘So what did you think?'” Peretz recalled. “I didn’t prepare anything, I didn’t come with an idea, but I felt that all my years as a photographer and as a director had been drained into this moment when I had to improvise. I felt pressure to work with a song like this, I was afraid to destroy it. It was so good and so touching, and my role, as far as I’m concerned , was to add visuals that wouldn’t ruin the feeling. Visuals that wouldn’t make the song cheap but on the contrary – would give respect. I wanted to convey the emotion I felt when I heard the song for the first time.”
After the union signaled that the lyrics of October Rain contained alleged “political messages”, and therefore the song was expected to be disqualified, the Israel Broadcasting Corporation first announced that they did not intend to change the lyrics of the song and that “something radical has to happen” for Israel to participate. Despite these announcements, the filming of the music video continued – and the question of whether he would ever meet an audience hovered over them. However, then the corporation changed its position and it was decided to do everything to have an Israeli representation on stage in Sweden. And so, after changing the words and theme, Hurricane was born, and with it came the green light – Israel inside.
An image from the Kabbalah that accompanies a gap of years. The upside down tree on the set of the “Hurricane” music video | Photography: Shay Zeliger
“The first sentence that caught me in the song, in its previous version, is ‘We got nothing to hide’, which later became ‘I got nothing to hide’. Instinctively, a campaign in which you see Kendall Jenner standing photographed in black and white in a studio jumped into my head Bare and simple. That’s the thing – there’s nothing to hide. I showed the guys the reference and they sent me to write the script.”
“Hurricane” – extensive coverage on N12:
“The upside-down tree is an image from Kabbalah that has accompanied me for years”
As of October 7, Peretz, like other Israeli artists, found himself in a professional position where he had to bring an artistic voice that relates directly to the war. Among other things, he directed the video published at the end of October in which the players of the Israeli national team are seen waiting for children who were kidnapped to Gaza, as well as a video released two months ago, in which Peretz manages to give a glimpse of the immense and unfathomable pain experienced by the families of the abductees. Then came “Hurricane”.
“As much as it sounds like a cliché, the personal is the political. I put my feelings in the work and I had no fear that it would not be in sync with the feeling of the whole. There is something that the whole country went through together, and my voice is the voice of everyone, basically. As an artist you are afraid From the moment the work meets the audience. Will they understand or not? Here I had confidence, of course they would understand. This was the starting point.”
“Aden is a true professional, she trusted us from the first moment. We understood that we needed to convey the truth and not go for something trendy”
Due to the same veil of secrecy that surrounded the release of the song, the video clips had to be filmed in a studio. “In the beginning, colors jumped out at me – orange, green and blue. Nature. Grass green, storm blue and sunrise orange. From these I decided to tell a horizontal story with three scenes that would tell a vertical story. Three stories that intertwine and create an overall story. And I approached the craft.”
“Working on the set we lost track of time, I was waiting for the scene of the sun.” Ofir Peretz Photo: Yonatan Kovach
Already on the eve of the clip’s unveiling, many speculated and tried to decipher what the poet actually meant in the clip, and to what extent the visual images are related to the events of October 7 and the war. “There is an image in Kabbalah that has accompanied me for years, ever since I was a student, that the Jewish person is upside down. That his roots are planted in the sky, not in the ground. They interpreted it as a symbol of Golani, as a tree from the Nova festival or as displaced roots, but that is what stands behind it.”
Many saw a connection between the sunrise in the clip and the sunrise of October 7. Peretz says that during the work process he tried to avoid linking the visual images to the Nova festival and the war, despite the apparent parallel. “Everyone knows what happened that morning. The sun rose and for some people it was the last light they saw in their lives. I knew that in the end the clip should end with the sun rising. With the light that defeats the darkness. That the clip should be as dark as possible, but in the end the sun would rise and illuminate everything. We wanted End with optimism.”
“We realized that 40% of the song changes and we edited all night” | Photo: Yonatan Kovach
“Working on the set itself, we lost track of time,” says Peretz about the shooting day. “We were working in the dark and there was a feeling of suffocation. I myself was waiting for the scene of the sun to come already and illuminate us, give us a moment to breathe. Throughout the clip we planted a tension between light and darkness. In one of the scenes in the clip, the light actually tries to penetrate through the slits, we hung a flashlight on a dolly and moved the light. I wanted there to be a struggle. For the light to try to enter and not succeed – until finally the sun rises. In Nova there are people for whom, unfortunately, that was the last light they saw, but there are people who were reborn there, who were saved. I aimed this moment at them.”
“As a creator, seeing a video like this is a surreal experience”
Along with Peretz who directed, Moran Boyce the producer, Yonatan Kovacs the photographer, Or Tobias the editor, Michael Sassoon who did the art and Avihai Hacham the choreographer worked on the music video. As of the time of writing these lines, the clip for “Hurricane” has gained more than 2.5 million views only on the official Eurovision YouTube page. Immediately after its release, devout Eurovision fans uploaded hundreds of reaction videos to “Hurricane” – videos in which devout Eurovision fans publish their reaction to the competition songs from the various countries.
“As a creator, watching a reaction video is truly a surreal experience,” Peretz shares his experience. “A person sits and reacts to your work while taking a picture of himself. I didn’t think I would experience something like this. Among the Israeli audience, I received a lot of responses asking for interpretation. ‘What does it mean’ and ‘What does it mean?’. I replied to everyone – it means what you think . Like in Roland Barthes’ ‘Death of the Author’ – what does it matter in the end what I meant? This clip invites discussion, invites people to feel – like any work of art.”
The song has changed, the music video has also changed. What was it like to work on a short, tight and volatile schedule?
“It was three weeks of madness. Positive madness. We shot the music video for October Rain and two days later we realized that 40% of the song had changed. I sat with the editor, we understood what couldn’t stay in it and what was missing. And we missed Eden alone, in an empty room. We thought it was right that she would sit on a sofa with a white cloth, another element of concealment. In this frame you can also see the camera, which corresponds to the idea that we have nothing to hide. We edited all night, and the next morning I arrived at the screening at the corporation. Everyone was moved, there were tears.
Eden Golan, from the filming of the video clip “Hurricane”. Photography: Shay Zeliger
From the footage of the video clip “Hurricane”. Photo: Shay Zeliger
“Of course, we were all upset that the lyrics had to be changed, but when the song came out and met the audience – we realized that they had done us a favor. It could be that the ‘rain of October’ was too literal. I think the fact that it became a ‘hurricane’ is what caused the crazy reactions that came to the song and the music video We didn’t expect this, and it’s very exciting.”
What can you tell about working with Eden?
“Eden is a true professional. She trusted us from the first moment. As much as I didn’t sleep – she doesn’t sleep twice as much. She recorded four different versions of the song, and these sessions were at night. She worked very hard. Although her default is something big, a diva, A pop star, she connected with the concept from the first moment. Minimalism. There was an understanding that something different was needed, to convey the truth and not go for something trendy. I asked Aden to think that she is entering a museum and seeing a piece that makes her pulsate, which is the feeling we want to create. She loved it and she was with us in the same mind from the moment The first, it is not obvious.”
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