My first encounter with The Victim was when I found this book in my library, unaware of how I got it or who bought it for me, the book just lay there on one of the shelves. I opened the book and started reading. As the pages turned, I felt I was mesmerized by something very strong and unique – an original story about guilt. I recognized myself in Assa’s predicament,
I felt what he felt, I knew what it is like to be guilt-driven, how confusing it is, how disastrous the implications are. What is fascinating for me is the ambiguity of guilt – a two faced, deceiving creature, which is uncatchable like a bar of soap. The whole dramatic pulse of the story lays in the tension of Assa’s inability to decide whether to help Ari or to kick him out of his life, and this is a definition of the human spirit for me, beautiful and sad at the same time.
In this adaptation Saul Bellow’s 1940s New York is replaced by presentday Tel Aviv, and the professional newspaper industry is replaced by the high-tech arena. The world of high-tech is extreme in both its salaries and in its savage rivalries. Young wonder boys are constantly replaced and the fear of being dismissed is always present.
I like to deal with ambiguous feelings in films, feelings that are hard to define. I find so much to share cinematically with this book, contributing my own music to Bellow’s lyrics, recreating his tragic and absurd story, touching on this particular universal human condition and adjusting it to my own country and time. I think this adaptation can shed an interesting light on modern capitalistic wannabe Israelis, while also show the collapse of a man who spirals downwards by the demons of guilt.