Yael Reuveny

© Amit Berlowitz

Biography

Born and raised in Israel, Yael Reuveny studied at the Sam Spiegel Film & Television School in Jerusalem and is based in Berlin since 2005.

In 2009, she completed Tales of the Defeated, a 30 min. documentary that had its international premiere at Visions du Réel, Nyon, and won several awards, among them the First Prize at the Jerusalem Film Festival and the Discovery Award as well as the DEFA Award at Cottbus Film Festival.

Her first full-length documentary Farewell, Herr Schwarz (Schnee von Gestern), premiered in late 2013 and has since won several prizes, among them the award for outstanding German documentary at DOK Leipzig and the Best Documentary Award at Haifa International Film Festival. Furthermore, Farewell, Herr Schwarz was nominated for the Ofir, the Israeli Academy Award and won the Israeli Documentary Filmmakers Award. It was cinematically released in Israel, Germany and the United States, received critical acclaim and was well received by audiences.

Yael Reuveny's latest documentary Promised Lands will premiere at the Jewish Film Festival Berlin and Brandenburg in August 2021.

Besides her work as a documentarian, Yael Reuveny creates video installations, among them Tunicata (2017) which was shown at Gropius Bau Berlin as part of the ultra+ exhibition and Mesubin (2020), a 21 screen installation for the new permanent exhibition in the Jewish Museum Berlin.

Documentary Films

Promised Lands, 2021
Written and directed by Yael Reuveny
Produced by Made in Germany Filmproduktion
Co-Production: WDR, RBB, Black Sheep Film Productions Ltd.

Farewell, Herr Schwarz (Schnee von Gestern), 2014
Directed and co-produced by Yael Reuveny
Producer: Made in Germany Filmproduktion
Co-producer: Black Sheep Film Productions, Channel 8 (Israel)
WDR (Germany)
Outstanding German Documentary, DOK Leipzig
Best Documentary Award, Haifa International Film Festival
Israeli Documentary Filmmakers Forum Award
Nomination for an Ofir (Israeli Academy Award)
Dialogue Award, Cottbus Film Festival

Tales of the Defeated, 2009
Directed by Yael Reuveny
Producer: MADE IN GERMANY Filmproduktion
Supported by Stiftung Zurückgeben
Awards, among others: Anat Pirchi Award for Best Short Documentary, Jerusalem Film Festival
The Bnaya Zuckerman Award for Best Short Documentary, Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival 
dokumentART, European Documentary Film Festival Neubrandenburg
Promotional Prize of the DEFA Foundation + Discovery Award, Cottbus Film Festival
Special Mention, Docencourts - Lyon Film Festival

Installations

Mesubin, 2020
A 21 screen video installation for the new permanent exhibition in the Jewish Museum Berlin

Tunicata, 2017
7-track video and sound installation
commissioned by Martin Gropius Bau Berlin for the "Giving form to knowledge" exhibition
purchased by the Draiflessen Collection Mettingen

Jerusalem Variations, 2006
Video installation for the exhibition project "My Name is Esperanza" in Santander, Spain

DOCUMENTARY

PROMISED LANDS

Director: Yael Reuveny


11 years after leaving Israel, director Yael Reuveny goes back to her homeland to meet her class mates of elementary school. What has become of the ideas and dreams they were raised on?

Premiere: Jewish Film Festival Berlin and Brandenburg, 15 August 2021

© Jewish Museum Berlin

INSTALLATION

MESUBIN

Created by Yael Reuveny in collaboration with Clemens Walter


Mesubin (The Gathered), a video installation created in collaboration with video artist Clemens Walter, is one of the highlights of the core exhibition of the Jewish Museum Berlin. As a “final chorus”, the installation brings the polyphony of contemporary Jewish together across twenty-one monitors.

© Draiflessen Collection, Henning Rogge

INSTALLATION

TUNICATA

Created by Yael Reuveny and Clemens Walter


Looking up a round ceiling projection the viewers find themselves in a reverse position: Instead of the scientist in the lab peering down into a microscope, the viewers lie supine on the floor and look up at a circle of light with greatly magnified creatures swimming around in it, making the beauty and the amazing anatomy of these creatures visible, giving "Oikopleura dioica", tiny marine creatures, a story and a voice.

The video installation Tunicata was created for the exhibition +ultra. knowledge & gestaltung at Martin-Gropius-Bau in Berlin in 2017.

HD, colour, sound, 6 min. 

DOCUMENTARY

FAREWELL, HERR SCHWARZ

Director: Yael Reuveny


Michla and Feiv'ke Schwarz, sister and brother, could have re-met in Lodz in 1945. But they didn't. She migrated to a Jewish state in the Middle East and founded a family there, while he returned to East Germany, changed his name to Peter, married a German woman and lived the rest of his life in the camp where he was once a prisoner. But they are just the beginning. 

The outcome of their decision affects the course of whole lives, for generations to come, here and now: Their children, who struggle to deal with their parents' silence and their own unasked questions. Their grandchildren who are haunted by family secrets and forced to question their own identity. Two families, in Germany and Israel, not knowing about each other for years, are strangely mirrored. 

Farewell, Herr Schwarz is an epic documentary by director Yael Reuveny, granddaughter of Michla Schwarz, about stories that can be inherited like the color of your eyes. A personal journey, beween Israel and Germany. 1 missed-meeting, 2 families, 3 generations. 



Downloads