Gila Almagor, an Israeli actress known as the “First Lady of Israeli Cinema,” said in Taipei that she was looking forward to bringing her autobiographical stage play to local audiences, whom she believes will be touched by her story despite linguistic and cultural barriers.
“I’ve been traveling with the play for over 20 years now, performing either in English or in Hebrew with translation. The response is always the same. People are crying in the same place and laughing in the same place,” Almagor told the Central News Agency in an interview on Friday. “If I can touch some people with my private story, it means a lot to me.”
The Israel Economic and Cultural Office (ISECO) and Taipei National University of the Arts invited Almagor to take part in the 2009 Kuandu Arts Festival, which features an Israel Week from Friday to tomorrow. She will perform the one-woman play The Summer of Avia, which is based on Almagor’s autobiographical novel of the same title, reprises her own stories as a Holocaust survivor looking for a new life in Israel and her relationship with her psychologically troubled mother.
Visiting Taiwan for a second consecutive year, Algamor said she was eager to come again because after meeting Taiwanese audiences last year, she felt their warmth and appreciation for her movies despite the language barrier.
Describing Almagor as one of Israel’s best ambassadors, ISECO Representative Raphael Gamzou said her visit was also part of an Israeli cultural season that has been organized by his office.
The office attaches a great deal of importance to cultural exchanges, among other activities, between Israel and Taiwan, he said.
“It’s very important for us to let Taiwanese friends feel that our representative office here is active in a multifaceted and multidimensional way. We are definitely interested in developing exchanges and relationships at all levels and all areas of potential progression,” Gamzou said.
“It is [also] very important to lay foundations for developing future dialogues and future relationships with the future generations between Israel and Taiwan,” he said.
The Israeli cultural season, which began on Sept. 26 to mark Tel Aviv’s centennial, will continue through the rest of the year and features a series of art and cultural activities such as movie screenings, contemporary dance performances and concerts by noted Israeli artists.
RSS