’Elia’ is the story of an ostrich family’s migration in search of better pasture grounds. In the artist’s own words, ’Elia’ is “a soft and melodramatic story about an ostrich chick, the firstborn, jealous of her newborn young brother, and the sentimental relationship in the family as it is shaken because of it.” While in earlier narrative films Ben-Ner clang to the adventure genre, with clear literary and visual references, in ’Elia’ he adopts the pace, sound, and narration of a classical “nature film,” making a point in anthropomorphizing the animals, generally through enhancing the familiar structures and naming the animals (Lassie, for instance) in order to convey a moral and educational message to the spectator.
“This is the natural family,” says Ben-Ner. “This is the way you must behave. These nature movie narratives, however, are the product of human cultural ideologies as imposed on the animals through editing and the narrator’s voice.” Indeed, an important element in the genre is the deep and authoritative voiceover whose function is to create empathy and convey the moral message. (Sergio Edelsztein)
Camera: Ryan Johnson, Dana Shutz, Marc Handelman,
Ignaciao, Ohad Meromi, Guy Ben-Ner
Music & Sound: Mariano Weinstein
Narrator: Carson Grant
With: Elia, Amir, Guy and Nava Ben-Ner
ארכיוני המרכז הוקמו בתמיכת קרן אוסטרובסקי וארטיס
