Yolande Zauberman

Yolande Zauberman is one of the most singular voices in French documentary cinema. An uninhibited auteur without filter, she goes straight to the heart of some of the most sensitive subjects and burning investigations. Born in Paris and possessing a degree in art history and economics, Yolande Zauberman was introduced to cinema by director Amos Gitaï. In 1987, she made her first documentary, Classified People, about apartheid in South Africa, winning numerous awards, including the Grand Prix at the Paris Film Festival. Her second film, Born Criminal (1989) was shot in India and selected for the Cannes Film Festival. Three years later, she directed her very first fictional film, in Yiddish with Me Ivan, You Abraham, winning awards all over the world including the Golden Fish at the Moscow Film Festival and the Prix de la Jeunesse at the Cannes Film Festival.   A multidisciplinary artist alternating documentary and fiction, feature film and short, video art and narrative art, Yolande Zauberman has blazed her own path of expression through films that always provoke lively debate, sometimes even controversy. Her cinema investigates our shadow, breaking down prohibitions, liberating speech and forcing people to listen. It stages pairs of "enemies" attacks places of power through love stories, whether religious or economic, confronting us with realities habitually kept under wraps, rendering desirable the lonely, marginalized, sacrified.   In 2011, her film Would you have sex with an Arab? presented at the Venice Film Festival, opened a wide-ranging debate on the living conditions of Israeli Arabs, addressing the highly sensitive issue of sexual relations in this region of the world mired in conflict.   With her pirate camera, infiltrating the hidden zones of Tel Aviv, the filmmaker questions taboos in Israel, without judging or provoking, but simply by collecting testimonies, capturing portraits. Her new film, M, extends this reflection through an even more sensitive subject: the rape of little boys. A film shot in Yiddish in the heart of Orthodox Jewish communities.