Blogging Tribeca 2009: Interview with Shelly Kling-Yosef of "Gefilte Fish."

A still from "Gefilte Fish," which screened at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival. Photo by Shlomi Yosef.

Shelly Kling-Yosef's Gefilte Fish tells the story of a young woman torn between her pre-nuptial family tradition to kill and prepare gefilte fish versus her sympathy for the live carp swimming in her bathtub. Although an uniquely Jewish story, the film's characters, comedy and poignancy transcend the boundaries of language and culture. Kling-Yosef, who grew up in Haifa and graduated from the Sam Spiegel Film & Television School in Jerusalem, produced the film in Israel. Here she talks with The Independent about the making of her short film Gefilte Fish which screened at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival.

What was your inspiration for the film?

I was looking for an idea for a short comedy and recalled a short story I once wrote about a girl who has to prepare gefilte fish for her family's Passover feast, and because she was so tired and stressed she thought the fish was talking to her and begging for its life.

But the very basic idea came from the story of my mother who as a child used to go to her grandmother's house before Jewish holiday feasts. Her grandmother used to keep some living carps in her bathroom in order to prepare gefilte fish from them, and my mother used to play with the fish, feed them and treat them as they were her pets, until her grandmother would strike them on the head with a Shnitzel stick and turn them into gefilte fish. All that happened in the kitchen of a family from a west European origin, a very civilized home, where manners were most important, a very distinct family, and I found the contrast between this and the brutal act of killing the fish amusing, horrifying, strange.

At the same time I was planning my wedding party and I was asking myself how me and my fiancé would make a fresh start, how we could get rid of fears and bad habits that we carry with us from the past. Out of all that I finally made up the fantasy about that tradition of preparing gefilte fish for the wedding party against the evil eye, and the letting go of the fish symbolizes the act of letting go of your fears.

I found the acting absolutely perfect in the film. Can you talk about the process of casting the actors and directing them during the film?

First thanks for the compliment! I think that the actors deserve it more than I do, because I gave them much freedom to bring their own interpretation of the script. It's impossible to explain to an actor how to be funny. I think it's more of a comic sense that one has or not, as simple as that. Most of the work on the acting was done during the casting process, [in choosing] the right actors. I knew who I wanted for the film and approached them. We did a short reading and luckily they all agreed to take part in the film. During the rehearsals and shoot I worked with them on timing and on the emotional state of each character, but honestly, I think the acting came out well because of the good script, the talent of the actors and the good connection between them.

The guy who plays the man in the supermarket scene is a different story: I cast for this part an actor who stood me up the morning of the shoot, so I had no choice but to ask Mr. Ben Zion Gessler who was the real fish-seller in the supermarket to play the part. Apparently he used to be a theater director back in Russia before he immigrated to Israel. So he was completely into it, he changed the script and directed the other actors… he was great, and good for me that happened because the result was much more authentic than anything I could have expected from any actor.

What was the editing process like?

It was quite frustrating for me because my editor (Rony Gammer) kept on cutting so much… I was surprised to see that scenes that I felt worked so good on the set, and on the script, suddenly appeared too long and seemed to miss their punch… so we had to cut a lot, to give the movie the right rhythm. I also worked a lot on the music (originally written by Gershon Weiserfirrer) and sound effects. When you deal with humor it's so much about timing and rhythm, and the music has a very big part in building that rhythm. The wrong music can turn a funny scene into a vague one, and on the contrary, good music can actually build the humor in the scene.

Tell me about the Tribeca Film Festival screenings -- did you attend? what was the atmosphere like? did you connect with other filmmakers?

I attended three out of the four screenings of my film, and it was really great. It was exciting for me to be there, in that wonderful trendy festival. After each screening there was the Q&A section and it was great to have that stage to introduce my film to the world. People liked the film and of course some came to tell me about their experience with their grandmothers killing a carp for gefilte fish… I got to meet the other filmmakers in my program and other programs, there were really beautiful and inspiring movies there.

What's the future of the film?

That’s a good question as I'm asking myself the same one… It is common that a good short would get a distributor, but unfortunately in Israel no one would agree to represent a short, thinking it wouldn't make any profit. But at the TFF I got approached from distributors in Europe and the States, and hope something will come up. Following the TFF I got many invitations to other festivals, so I hope Gefilte will go on touring the world.

Any other projects in the works?

Yes, my next project would be "kneidalach"… just kidding. Actually I'm working on a script for a feature film that deals with three generations of women who out of consequences that life turn upon them, have to learn new things about their feminine and maternal identity. Actually it also has something to do with fish, and its name in free-translation from Hebrew is "a whale's belly."

Also as I'm a former dancer, I would very much like to return to this world which I abandoned seven years ago when I went to film school, and try to make a dance work, and a documentary about young dancers who are struggling their way to success. It should be a film about things people would do in order to fulfill their dreams.

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