| Native Name: | טרילוגיה על אהבה: לידה |
| Director: | Yaron Shani |
| Producer: | Naomi Levari Saar Yogev Michael Reuter |
| Starring: | Stav Almagor Ori Shani Leah Tonic |
| Cinematography: | Nitzan Lotem, Shai Skeef |
| Editing: | Yaron Shani |
| Music: | Hanan Ben Ari |
| Studio: | Black Sheep Film Productions |
| Distributor: | Alpha Violet |
| Runtime: | 108 minutes |
| Country: | Israel, Germany |
| Language: | Hebrew |
Love Trilogy: Reborn (in Hebrew: טרילוגיה על אהבה: לידה) is a 2019 Israeli drama film, and the third installation of the Love Trilogy film series, following the second of the trilogy, Chained (2019).[1] Reborn was written, directed, and edited by Yaron Shani. The film's world premier took place at the Busan Film Festival.[2] It then won Best Film, Best Actress (shared between the three leads), and Best Cinematography awards at the Haifa International Film Festival.
Avigail (Stav Almagor) is undergoing fertility treatments, and stands helplessly between her husband's bullying and her daughter's rebelliousness. She meets two sisters who share a complex relationship: Yael (Ori Shani) accompanies women through pregnancy and performs as a doula in childbirth, while her own trauma caused by her mother's abandonment prevents her from becoming a mother; and Na'ama (Leah Tonic), already traumatized by her stepfather's abuse in her childhood, who loses control of her life when she becomes his caretaker when he's placed in a nursing home due to dementia. The women find solace and meaning in their connections, and discover that they can help each other change, break their figurative chains, and be reborn.
Yaron Shani works with a cast of non-actors, who work without a script, improvising the scenes on-camera. The film is shot in single takes, without rehearsals.[3]
The film is an Israel-German co-production. Producers were Naomi Levari and Saar Yogev of Black Sheep Film Productions,[4] in cooperation with Michael Reuter of The Post Republic. The movie was made with the support of the Israeli Film Fund, Arte, and yes satellite television, and is distributed by Alpha Violet, a French-based independent film distribution company.
Israeli news site ynet praises Shani's project, calling it "intriguing" and "meant to blend the line between reality and fiction".[5] In her Haaretz review, Nurit Enderman comments on how, though each of the films in the trilogy being able to stand on its own, the third installation exposes the trilogy's "fascinating complexity.... Revealing the obvious and hidden connections that link them". She predicted that Reborn might well take the Best Picture award at the Jerusalem Film Festival, writing that "It certainly deserves it—both as an independent work and as part of one of the most interesting, ambitious, original, and complex cinematic projects ever created."[6] Writing for Srita, an Israeli online cinema magazine, Ofer Libergal also calls the film project "one of the most ambitious in the history of Israeli cinema". He positively remarks that while the first two films in the series focused heavily on the exploitative and violent sides of love, with a primary lens upon the male characters, Reborn deals with connection and empathy between women. This, he contends, "justifies the choice of the word 'love' to describe the trilogy".[7]
| Year | Award | Category | Nominee | Result | Ref | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | Haifa International Film Festival | Best Film | Naomi Levari (producer)Saar Yogev (producer)Yaron Shani (director) | [8] | ||
| 2019 | Best Actress | Stav AlmagorOri ShaniLeah Tonic | ||||
| 2019 | Best Cinematography | Nizan LotemShai Skiff | ||||
| 2019 | Best Script | Yaron Shani | [9] | |||
| 2019 | Best Editing | Yaron Shani | ||||
| 2020 | Shanghai International Film FestivalBelt and Road Film Week | Audience Choice Award | Yaron Shani | [10] |