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Meet Tarantino’s favourites

Interview - Navot Papushado

May 5, 2014 07:59
Shoot to thrill: Navot Papushado (right) and Aharon Keshales flank Big Bad Wolves star Lior Ashkenazi

By

Brigit Grant,

Brigit Grant

5 min read

Having given Big Bad Wolves a well merited five star review when it was released here last December, the opportunity to interview the film’s Israeli directors Aharon Keshales and Navot Papushado was too good to miss. But first I had to find them. For since the release of BBW the filmmakers have been lavished with praise, accolades and airline tickets to take them on a whirlwind tour of countries where their presence was sought. Everyone, it seemed, wanted to meet the men behind the year’s most relentlessly dark but entertaining thriller. And don’t just take my word for it. The directors’ biggest fan is none other than Quentin Tarantino, who made an unexpected appearance at the Busan Film Festival in South Korea, telling a worshipping crowd of cinephiles that Big Bad Wolves was “f****** sensational” and “not just the best film in town, but the best film of the year”.

It was at this point during the Q&A that Papushado rose from his chair, removed his tie, raised his arms above his head in hero-like pose and left the podium to audience cheers. “It was an extraordinary moment,” recalls the director, who then went out for lunch with Tarantino. “I was in the presence of our hero and told him that I had no intention of pretending to be cool. I felt like a teenager at a Justin Bieber concert.”

Later over drinks as Tarantino introduced him to the Korean film director, Joon-ho Bong, Papushado could only picture the face of Keshales — off promoting the movie at festivals in Chicago and Denver — when he found out.

“I tried calling him 27 times that day to say: ‘You are never going to believe this but...’”, recalls Papushado, 34. “Aharon had asked me to try and get Quentin to see the film, but I never imagined it would be possible. Fortunately a journalist from the film website Twitch was seated beside Tarantino and he reported the reaction, which went global. So Aharon knew it was gospel.” And best of all, Tarantino sent a gift to the co-director. “All I can tell you is that it was a present Aharon will never forget, but we are not at liberty to say more,” insists Papushado, who months later still feels overwhelmed and humbled by the rapture for BBW. This is hardly surprising as it was only the duo’s second feature. And though it won the equivalent of five Israeli Oscars, they are still new to the game. Born in Jaffa, Keshales, 38, grew up in Bat Yam and after serving in the Intelligence Corps of the IDF attended Tel Aviv University’s film school, where he became a teaching assistant until completing his Masters. He also worked as film critic for Ynet, Globes and Ratings magazine, which made him all the more sensitive (and vulnerable) to the review process when he and Papushado made their first film — a horror flick called Rabies.