PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews Yaniv Berman, director of Land of the Little People, from the 16th Transilvania International Film Festival.
Land of Little People marks the fiction directorial debut of Yaniv Berman, and was presented in the competition of the 17th Transilvania International Film Festival. The film doesn’t discuss the war in Israel as much as it looks at the militaristic society in Israel at large – especially, through its narrative, how this society affects children. The themes and story of Land of Little People allows Berman to elaborate on the film’s driving themes of military, war, Israel and the media. We also mention William Goulding’s 1954 novel Lord of the Flies. Finally, Berman ends the interview by listing a number of surprising ways in which reality and fiction got mixed together in the making of the movie.
Land of the Little People: four young kids who live in a village of military officers families form a small gang. An old abandoned army base turns into their camp. Another war begins in Israel, and most men are drafted to serve their country. The mothers are sitting worried in front of the TV sets, while the kids, with no one to supervise them, return to their camp in the wild. To their surprise, they discover two soldiers who deserted their units, using their camp as a hideout.