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    Liebesleben – Maria Schrader Films Zeruya Shalev

    By Tanja Meding | August 18, 2008

    A name in German cinema, Maria Schrader has worked as an actress with such prominent directors as Margarete von Trotta (Rosenstrasse, 2003), Dani Levy (Fathers, 2002, Giraffe, 1998), Max Färberböck (Aimee and Jaguar, 1999), and Doris Dörrie (Am I Beautiful?, 1998) – whose cited films have garnered critical acclaim. Now Maria Schrader has added two more credits to her resumé: screenwriter and director of Liebesleben (Germany, 2007), an entry at the 2007 Film Fest Roma and programmed in the German Cinema section at the 2008 Berlinale.

    Based on the bestselling novel Love Life by Israeli author Zeruya Shalev, Schrader, together with Laila Stieler (Andreas Dresen’s long time screenwriter), wrote the script and made this project her directing debut.

    Shot entirely on location in Israel by German DP Benedict Neuenfels, the film tells the story of Jara (Israeli actress Netta Gari), a young married Israeli graduate student who falls in love with her father’s best friend, Arie (Rade Serbedzija, aka Rade Sherbedgia in credits). Right from their first meeting, Jara is infatuated by this much older, self-centered, and self-serving man. Stuck in the mundane routine of her own life, Jara totally immerses herself in her obsession, until she can finally rid herself of it to emerge with her own voice and strength to move on.

    Casting the Israeli Netta Gari in the role of Jara, Maria Schrader found a talented, emerging actress well worth keeping an eye on.With her captivating screen presence, Gari  holds her ground next to the charismatic Croatian character actor Rade Sherbedgia (Milcho Manchevski’s Before the Rain, 1994).

    Shot in English, Love Life was awarded a Lola for Best Cinematography by Benedict Neuenfels, who also received a Bavarian Film Award, as did the composer Niki Reiser for the film’s sound track. A fitting compendium piece, Marion Kollbach and Angela Scheele’s documentary Zeruja Shalev – Das Hohelied der Liebe (Zeruya Shalev – The Great Hymn of Love) offers an insight into the writer’s life and work in Jerusalem as well as an intimate portrait of today’s Israel.

    – Tanja Meding

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