Plot, cast, real story, trailer, photos – The Wom

MMichael Winterbottom presented his new film at the Toronto Film Festival. Shoshana. In November, in Italian cinemas, he will tell the true story of a woman who in 1938 had to choose between the man she loved and the independence of her own country.

Comes to the cinema from November 16distributed by Spreading the Vision, Shoshana, a new film from director Michael Winterbottom. It stars actors Douglas Booth, Irina Starshenbaum, Harry Melling, Ori Alby and Ian Hart, and is produced by Revolution Films and Italy’s Bartleby with Vision Distribution.

The film is based on real events. Shoshana is a political thriller set in the 1930s that explores how political extremism and violence create rifts between people, forcing them to choose sides.

Plot of the film

The film takes place in Mandatory Palestine. Shoshana traces the origins of one of the world’s most complex conflicts. Co-written by Michael Winterbottom himself, along with Lawrence Corea (his regular collaborator) and Paul Virag. Shoshana interweaves a story of ill-fated love with a story of political radicalization.

It is 1938 and tensions are high in Tel Aviv as the British struggle to maintain order between the Palestinian and Jewish populations. English policeman Thomas Wilkin (Douglas Booth) has settled in the city and is madly in love with Shoshana (Irina Starshenbaum), the daughter of Zionist Labor Party co-founder Dov Ber Borochov.

As the paramilitary organization Irgun, led by poet Abraham Stern (Ori Alby), wages a brutal campaign to overthrow the British authorities, Thomas and his superior, officer Geoffrey Morton (Harry Melling), adopt a zero-tolerance policy towards the Resistance, increasing tactics and measures .

Meanwhile, Shoshana receives death threats for daring to fraternize with a member of the occupying forces. The girl loves Thomas, but also believes in the desire for independence of her people. And soon she will have to choose between them.

A world of divisions

The film was created with almost surgical precision. Shoshana offers great entertainment and takes you to one of the most complex places in the world where today’s conflicts began. “Shoshana I started working on this film 15 years ago, after the Jerusalem Film Festival gave me an award for Mighty Heartfeature film with Angelina Jolie, in which I told the story of Marianne Pearl and her husband Daniel, who were kidnapped and murdered in Pakistan,” said Michael Winterbottom.

“At the invitation of the festival, I began to read in Jerusalem One Palestine, a book by Tom Segev that is a brilliant account of the period between the two world wars when Britain had a mandate to rule Palestine. This is a part of British colonial history that has been largely overlooked or forgotten by the British, but is also crucial to Israel. What struck me was that this story had a lot in common with the ongoing American occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan, especially with regard to the mistakes made by foreign forces.”

“Together with producer Joshua Hyams, we began to explore that historical period. We visited Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, visited the archives of the Spielberg Film Institute and worked with Israeli researcher Hila Baroz,” the director continued.

“The story of Shoshana Borokhova and Tom Wilkin seemed like an ideal topic for our film. It shows how political extremism and violence create divisions between people, driving them apart. Perhaps we managed to make the film only now, after many years of trying, because the topic is more relevant than ever, and not only in relation to what is happening in Israel. For example, Brexit has divided the UK on two fronts, the US has a divisive president like Trump, and the situation in Ukraine is more tragic than ever.”