‘Shoshana’ Director Michael Winterbottom On His Film’s Long Journey: “We’ve Been Trying To Make It For 15 Years” — TIFF Studio

SHOSHANA

Section: Special Presentations

Director: Michael Winterbottom

Writers: Michael Winterbottom, Laurence Coriat, Paul Viragh

Logline: Inspired by real events, Shoshana is a political thriller set in 1930s Tel Aviv, a brand new European-Jewish city being built on the shores of the Mediterranean. Thomas Wilkin (Douglas Booth), a British policeman, is in love with both the city and Shoshana Borochov (Irina Starshenbaum), a local journalist there. The arrival of a new British anti-terrorist officer (Harry Melling) puts pressure on the couple when he begins to suspect Shoshana of having connections with an underground militia.

Sales: UTA (U.S.), Vision Distribution (International)

Premiere Date: Sept. 8, 2023

Panelists: Michael Winterbottom (director), Douglas Booth (actor), Irina Starshenbaum (actor), Aury Alby (actor).

Key Quote: “We’ve been trying to make this film for 15 years. I went to Jerusalem Film Festival in 2008 — they were showing a selection of my films — and while I was there, I read a book by Tom Segev called One Palestine, Complete, which tells a really great story about the British role in Palestine between the two world wars. It just seemed like a really fascinating place and time, something that I hadn’t really heard that much about. We then started then researching different stories, and we came across the story of Tom and Shoshana. It just felt like it was a way of looking at the effects of [political] violence, but through the very simple story of a relationship.” – Michael Winterbottom