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18 Kilometers deals with the current security and social questions in Sderot.
It addresses the stress that the people in the area, Sderot and Gaza, feel daily . I identify with these people and have felt the stress, and have made the “situation” the hero. I have attempted to connect the various personal histories and cultural outlooks of the real life characters in the film, emphasizing their capacity for love and their unwillingness to forgive in the face of this terrible conflict that is out of our hands.
The script has been written to relate a message of coexistence, tolerance and about the strength that resides within the ability to forgive. My intention has been to create dialogue by means of the people of Sderot and Gaza but not about the “situation”.
I didn’t set out to judge, but simply to demonstrate the disgraceful state of our lives.
The silence of the majority, which enables the perpetuation of the situation, is implied by the film. It is a real look at the real lives of people who try to come to terms with the challenges their lives present. No declarations, no poses, just real people.

Biography

All my life I’ve lived in Qiriyat Gat, a development town with an “authentic” mix of different ethnic communities and their cultures. When I moved to Sderot to begin studying in Sapir, I easily made contact with the town’s residents and after three years came to know the owner of the falafel stand; the usher at Cinemateque; an officer serving at station 106 where, through him and with the residents of Sderot I made the transition to “Shahar Adom”; the trauma and the daily difficulties , a grieving family; a truck driver who had a terrible accident; a frustrated woman who felt that the films in the Cineateque don’t have anything to do with their lives.

For four years I stewed, working on doing short films. These films addressed the people of Sderot and gaza ;end the things that concerned them. The work on these films brought e to the point at which I felt I could begin writing and producing 18 Kilometers.

AVI LEVI \avil78@gmail.coM