Yonatan Shehoah

DIRECTOR'S FILMOGRAPHY & BIO Yonatan Shehoah (23-03-1992) was born and raised in Mexico City and emigrated to Israel in 2012. From 2013 to 2017 he studied directing and cinematography full time at the Maaleh School of Film and Television and graduated in 2018. "Terror" is his graduating film. Yonatan was the director of photography for five of his fellow students' films: "11 Minutes" 2012 "Taken" 2015 "Round 2" 2017 "Shmil" 2018 "Possessed" 2018. I was born and raised in Mexico City, where I lived until 5 years ago. It was place where you never felt completely secure, and you always had to watch your back. You never knew when some stranger was going to attack you (or even kill you), just to get to your wallet. That's how it is in Mexico. It was always clear to me that when I emigrated to Israel the situation would be different. I knew that there are tensions over here and that it's not exactly the simple life, but I also knew I wouldn't be robbed in the street. On the day to day level, I thought it would be a fairly relaxed existence compared to South America. I was wrong about that. As soon as I moved to Jerusalem I had that same feeling of being in danger, of not being able to know who you could trust. The political and social tension here has unfortunately become a psychological and emotional tension that is now part of me, as it is part of many people around me. When you walk down the street, you're on the lookout for potential terrorist attacks and for potential attackers, and it's difficult to see beyond that, to get beyond survival. In my film, Dan, the hero, is trying to get back to into a normal routine after being wounded in a terrorist attack. But he's still in a place of terror, still on his guard, still reacting to everything defensively. Dan's fear and tension intensify as the movie progresses until he's convinced himself that no way is he going to be a victim a second time around, no way is he just going to let events take over and not be in control. So he takes steps to prevent a terror attack but that attack is only going on his head, and the consequences are disastrous. In the long run, plenty of innocent and blameless people suffer the consequences of terror and not just those who get physically wounded in the attacks. I asked the outstanding Arab Israeli actor Hilal Kaboub to be in my film because I wanted to give a voice to that innocence. Hilal was born in Jaffa and has acted in award-winning films like "Ajami" and "Fauda". For him, acting is not just his art, but his way of being an activist for his community. Tzachi HaLevi is also a well-known actor, who has worked in "Bethlehem" and "Fauda". When all of us were working 14 hours a day on the set, putting our heart and soul into this film, it made me feel that we three at least we're trying our very best to put terror behind us.