The Flat is a 2011 Israeli feature documentary film written and directed by Arnon Goldfinger. It was theatrically released in Israel in September 2011. It plays continuously for thirteen months and has received good reviews. Time Out Tel Aviv chose to place the film at the top of its recommended films for 49 weeks under the headline: “not to be missed” and chose it as one of the 25 most important art works from around the world for 2011. The Flat was theatrically released in Germany in June 2012. The German version of the film features the voice of renowned German actor Axel Milberg taking on the role of narrator Arnon Goldfinger. 'The Flat will be theatrically released in USA in October 2012. The film was selected to the World Documentary Film Competition at the Tribeca Film Festival, 2012 in were it got the Best Editing award. It was the opening film at Dok Munich in 2012.
plot
The film opens with a situation that is familiar to many: The director and members of his family are gathered in the apartment of his grandmother, a short while after her death, in order to clear out the contents. His grandmother lived in the same apartment for 70 years; ever since she and her husband left Nazi Germany in the 1930s and immigrated to Palestine. It is not long, however, before Goldfinger finds various items in his grandmother's house that reveal an astonishing chapter in the family's history - a chapter that had been kept under wraps for decades. The film opens on a black screen, then, as the blinds open in a small window to let in shafts of light, one realizes that this is the interior of The Flat which has been closed in darkness since the grandmother’s death. Goldfinger opens windows, closets, doors and archives, literally and figuratively, letting in the light
Production
After his grandmother’s death Arnon Goldfinger began, all alone, to film the clearing out of his grandmother’s flat. By chance Goldfinger met cinematographer Talya (Tulik ) Galon, who lives not far from his grandmother's flat, and told her about the flat. She helped with the cinematography (Philip Bellaiche entered the production later on). They filmed the family rummaging through closets, the items with their old-fashioned European flavor that were pulled out one after another - and the dozens of garbage bags that filled up quickly. But Goldfinger and the others did not know exactly what they were looking for. And then it happened: Suddenly among the cartons of gloves and shoes, the fox furs and the purses, the books and the boxes with letters - a pile of old German newspapers appeared. Goldfinger did not imagine that this would be The First clue that would lead him on an emotional journey that would be both upsetting and confusing, and that would reveal a family history that for years had been repressed and hidden. At that point the research broadened and new characters emerged, unexpected ones. The crew expanded until the point that the film became a German-Israeli coproduction with Zero One Film coming on board as co-produces. Goldfinger worked for five years till finishing the film that is being supported by New Israeli Foundation for Cinema and Television, Filmförderungsanstalt, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, Deutscher Filmförderfonds with ARTE, ZDF, SWR, Noga Communications- Channel 8
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