Tribeca 2023 | The Future Interview with Writer-Director Noam Kaplan

I recently had the opportunity to interview Noam Kaplan, the writer and director of The Future, a gripping film that delves into the complexities of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the assassination of Israel's Minister of Space and Tourism.

Watch the interview using the YouTube video player above, or click below to listen to the audio-only version. If neither is your cup of tea, keep scrolling for the transcript of the interview.

The movie will have its world premiere at Tribeca 2023 and will be screened at the AMC on 19th Street.

If you're interested in seeing it, you can purchase tickets at https://tribecafilm.com/films/future-2023.

Keep an eye out for my upcoming review!

Austin: For those watching at home or listening what-however you're doing this. My name's Austin Belzer. I am here with Noam Kaplan. He is the writer-director of the film The Future.

It's screening at Tribeca this year on June 10th, June 11th, and June 17th. All at the same place, AMC 19th Street. If you miss one, you just got to remember AMC 19th Street, all around the same time. On June 10th, it's 8:45. On June 17th, it's 8:15, and then on June 11th, it's 6:30.

For those who don't know what the film is about, it's about the-Israel's-it's about a lot of things, to be quite honest with you. It's about Israel's first mission to the moon. It's about the murder of the Israeli Minister of Space and Tourism. It's a kind of detective drama. It's all, it's a hundred different things.

So I hope I describe that well enough for people to go see it whether they're in Tribeca for the festival or, maybe, they catch it later. But with that said, yeah, I'm really excited to talk to you about this. I've probably have way too many questions, so I'll try to keep it light.

So the first thing I noticed is the opening of the film. It's different. It has different cinematography because it's all shot handheld as if somebody's going through with a camcorder and it's. It's the reenactment of the murder. So what inspired that as the opening of the film?

Noam: I don't know exactly what inspired I was looking for. I knew that I wouldn't show any actual violence or actual crime in the film. It's gonna be a film that has a crime in it, but it's, but not, but the intention was to never show it. But it is, a visual medium. You have to show something, and so that, that's how we came up with the idea to actually shoot billion ment scene.

We weren't sure it's gonna open the film. We thought maybe it would be joined in later on, maybe in parts. We weren't really sure about that, but but we thought it was quite, and forgive me for saying quite clever move to go ahead and also mix a little bit of style and open with something completely different from the rest of the film that you wouldn't really know what kind of film you are watching.

And Really mock, mock up a real reenactment. And this is something that I had quite an experience with before. Cause I did some other short films mainly that was done the same way. They were half fiction, half doco. And I would also appear in them as I do in the opening scene. So I had the confidence of doing that without really, Planning it too much.

Not rehearsing it even. And just trying to direct the scene while I'm in the scene. Yeah.

Austin: And something you talked about just then was confidence, and I think it's-I noted it down when I was watching the film. Both actors, Reymond Amsalem and Samar Qupty.

Both have a kind of similar confidence, but really different. Reymond, I think she plays Yaffa in the film. Yeah.

Noam: The other way around, actually.

Austin: Oh, sorry. Dr. S-Samar Yeah. Plays Yaffa in the film and her demeanor is, at both times, unbothered, but also really smart about the way. She's saying things [and what she’s] not because she's smart, but she's also…I don't necessarily, “this is just taking up my time, and I'd rather do anything else”, or at least that's the impression I got. And Reymond, who plays Dr. Bloch, is also similar in that aspect where she's got a whole other life going on at home.

“I'd rather focus on that than this interview with Yaffa and I want, wanna focus on what's the problem with The Future Project.” Not to give anything away, but so I wanted to ask, it was a long road to ask this question, but what was the process of casting these two characters, Yaffa and Dr. Bloch? Because they're pretty similar, I think.

Noam: Yeah, it's not funny, maybe, but interesting that you saying that they're quite similar even. I think the look resembled they resemble each other physically, which was not the intention at the beginning of the casting, but it just turned out we were lucky enough to have it.

The casting was, actually, quite simple. And there are Reymond Amselm, who plays the doctor, Dr. Nurit. She-she really liked the part, and she came in, and she gave a new perfect audition, really. And pretty much early on it was, we knew that she's gonna do it. Of course, we auditioned more, but she just nailed the audition, and she was very prepared.

It was the best audition I've ever seen. I haven't seen that many, but it was really perfect. And with Samar Qupty, who plays Yaffa. There aren't a lot of Israeli-Palestinian actresses here in the right age. Not that many. And she was by far the best. And what impressed me the most is that she came into the audition, limping, actually using a crutch.

She had a crutch, cause she was she hurt her leg a day or two days before, I don't know. And-and I was keep looking at the crutch. She came in going to do the audition, using a crutch. And I thought to myself, this is a killer. This is someone who would, go-getter and achiever.

She would kill for that audition. For this audition. And so she would, she could have killed in the real life in the role that she has to play. And And that said it for me. And she also, she's a very good actress, but that's regardless. Cause everybody's good, at some points you looking for something else, something extra, something, special.

Yeah, they were both very confident in their roles. They felt close to them, close enough. And I, we were quite lucky actually, to get them both.

Austin: Yeah, because, a lot of the film relies on just them in a room talking to each other. So I think, and also as a sort of vessel for portraying sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

And I want to dig a little deeper into that, actually. Okay. So, I think the film walks this line between trying to find criticisms with both conflicts, but also sympathy. So, I want to dig into how did you balance the line of trying to find sympathy and criticism on both sides of the discussion in that room.

Noam: This is something that I'm always looking for, I'm a political person, and I'm a political writer and director. Of course, this is the, I'm committed to this, but I'm also, I also like people a lot. Okay. And I also think, I always think that In order to really appeal to people, you need to present people, complete people.

With witnesses, with other stuff that's going on. Even though you are a very political person, you are also hungry sometimes, or you need a cigarette break, or you think you are ugly, or you want to dye your hair, or you think of having a baby, or you want to… will you talk to your mother?

And in life, we have these things are in the wind, they're in your head all the time. And so this is how I try to balance, let's say, the heavy issues of the East Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which we, most of us, know about it and heard of and seen for many years, and in many films and books and on tv, et cetera.

And try to find a fresh angle in order to present this subject matter in a direct matter, but also, original matter and personal.

Austin: Yeah. And, you talk about a lot of things going on, mom's birthday, someone thinking they're ugly.

Something I mentioned at the top was beyond all of this, The Future Project, the assassination. There's also a countdown to the first Isreal’s first Moon mission, I think. I think it's the moon mission, right?

Noam: Yeah. It's the first manned moon mission. And there was another mission just to you two or three years ago, but it wasn't manned, and it wasn't really, it was based on Israeli technology, but yeah.

Austin: But I just wanted to ask why. Why use that as a backdrop? I'm just curious.

Noam: This is it's a good question, and it's something that was added to the script quite late in the process. When I say late, let's say a year before we start shooting. And it was, I think, the last feature that was compiled into this script, not a storyline.

And I try to it came from something I, I read about, and something that, that I was dealing with, that dealing with is that, we try so much to go to the moon and, and maybe we can go to the moon and but we are, the further we the closer we get to the moon, the further we get from ourselves, that was the motto.

Okay. Okay. And I was trying to incorporate this ease of technology, okay? With technology, it's easy to achieve all these kinds of things, including the algorithm, the sophisticated algorithm that's supposed to prevent terror, waste, et cetera. But then the simple stuff, the simple, not very simple, but the interpersonal stuff and the Israeli person in conflict and other conflicts, they are how to solve, when we are avoiding them.

And so I, I use that algorithm, and also it's part of the Israeli hubris, that we think that we are very smart and we can sort everything and we can put the man on the moon, but we cannot make peace with our neighbors. That, that's why I put this line into, and the countdown, the 30 days is actually parallel to the woman cycle, the pregnancy cycle.

All that you know is, and also, technically, let's say it gives the film a timeframe, like a solid timeframe of a countdown, and something that I think it's important for the audience, to know where they are in the film, but not in a very si-try not to be very simplistic about it and quite sophisticated or elegant.

At least try to.

Austin: First, I want to say if that isn't the tagline for the movie, the further we get to the oh, I think you said….

Noam: The closer we get to the moon, the further we stay for ourselves.

Austin: Yeah. If that isn't a tagline, I'm gonna make that the unofficial tagline for the movie.

Noam: Actually, it was a tagline sometimes, but we reworked it, I think.

Austin: But yeah, I do think the timeframe does work as a narrative framing. And I wanna talk about something really small that you did in the movie that kind of interested me. You talk about a lot, the purpose of a name in this movie.

So, I just wanna ask from somebody who gets way too nerdy about this stuff what, why was it so important to have a conversation about names in the film, or, was it just something else, or that you were just really into?

Noam: Another very good questions and I'm happy for it.

The thing with names, so I have an obsession with names, and I had my wife and I, we had a hard time picking a name for our second born, not the first born. The first one is actually named after the tree, just like many other Israeli names. And it's also in the film. But I, I didn't really think about it until a film I made before that it was called Manpower and it was dealing with migrant workers.

The backdrop is migrant workers in Tel Aviv, and I was working with non-actors and this African actor, the main one of the main characters. He told, he asked me my name, and I said my name. He said, but he said, what tree is it? What is the name? What kind of plant or tree is your name?

And I said, my name means something else. He said, it's impossible. All the Israeli names, they mean they are either plants or trees. And for some reason I, it, it got stuck with me for ten years, this obsession with names. And so this is one thing. And the other thing is, the the very cheap use of the language of names that you know, that we have I think all over the world.

But I know about Israel, for example, the, the spaceship is called Hope. Which is also the name of the mother of the main character, and also we have now two, two parties, two political parties that they're using Hope and Future in their names, and they cannot give.

And they promise, hope and future, and they obviously cannot deliver each of them, in a way, I try to put a finger on that. I try to point out that the, this cheap use of. Of language. And on, on the third hand, if you have a third hand also, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is also about the land, and and the trees and the plants that are on the land, and which of them is Palestinian and which of them is Israeli, which is stolen, which is borrowed, so it's another angle on that.

Austin: Yeah. And I think it's a super interesting, even just as a side kind of thing that you could blink, not even blink in, you miss it, but just as a kind of side conversation after the film to talk about names and, you talk about land and I, I don't want to talk about that, that'll be spoilers, but yeah I it's a super fascinating conversation about it.

And, you have an interesting character. I don't remember her name and I, I don't know how much you wanna get into spoilers given that only a handful of people have seen it, but the surrogacy character. Yeah, she's interesting. And I, and. How did you develop that character as someone out almost outside of everything that's happening in the, that guest house? I'm assuming that's a guest house where they're having that interview.

Noam: It's a, it's like a home study or a home clinic or something like that. When that character came out also quite late addition to the script.

It was up until that character came up, this whole notion of having a child was kinda introverted, kinda in know its head or wishes, but then you had to materialize that, you had to visualize that. So we came this character that that she just wants to give. And she's a very easygoing person, a very nice person.

Everything goes smooth for her. And she's perfect. She can run a marathon, she can have three kids. She can do everything, and unlike the main character, she's a really strong. Antagonist or, an opposite character, everything is very easy and every and very flowy for her.

So yeah, so I thought it would be interesting and also a little bit funny, to contrast, Nurit’s character, which is very severe. With this kind of easygoing smart person who just wants to give, and I think you are not really sure up until the end. Why is she doing her motives are, I think they are not very clear.

Maybe up until the very end, which is something that I, I like, it's, she's a rhythm, a rhythm, very joyful and, and nice to look at kind of rhythm and, and the ball is very well, I think, executed by Zaki and act modern a model turned actress, now she's an up and coming actress.

Austin: Yeah. Yeah. And everything you said, I got, in fact, my, I don't know if you are familiar with this anecdote, but she reminded me of a California Valley girl kind of person.

Noam: Yeah.

Austin: Especially there, there's a shot of a, like a cliff side where you're just looking at all, all these clusters.

I'm like, if you didn't say it was in Israel, I could have been like, this could have been California because it could've, I, and I think the best narratives work regardless of place. But I do want people to see this movie, like I said earlier, on June 10th, 11th, and 17th at AMC 19th Street.

And then one last question. I'm gonna ask you something. I'm gonna ask all my Tribeca interviewees. It's a boiler polite question, but I always ask during Tribeca for anyone I interview. What are your hopes for this film for people seeing this film during Tribeca? What do you want?

Yeah, what do you, what are your hopes coming out at Tribeca?

Noam: I hope, I hope people will get the film the way you got it and, pay attention, and it's very interesting for me how this film, which is very Israeli, I might say, in the subject matter, is also universal. But first and foremost, it's a political Israeli film shot on location in Israel.

I'm really surprised to see how far this thing can travel. And I'm actually I'm so surprised that it's even in Tribeca, and in New York. I'm so surprised and happy about that. And I really hope, yeah, I really hope, people will get the film, will get what I'm talking about.

And appreciate it and make them think, not only feel, but also think you know about the future.

Austin: Ooh, that's a good note to end it on. But again, June 10th. June 11th. June 17th, all at AMC 19th Street. Go check it out. Noam, thank you so much for joining us.

Noam: Thank you very much, Austin.

Until next time!

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