Noga Erez, the hipster queen of the Israeli music scene, attended the Israeli premiere of Noga, the new documentary about her and her musical and personal partner, Ori Rousso, at the Jerusalem Film Festival on Friday.
The festival runs until July 19.
Typically irreverent, she opened her remarks following the film by saying, “Now that you know all the intimate details and more about our life, we would be happy if everyone tells something about themselves. Start!”
Erez and Rousso attended the screening at the Jerusalem Cinematheque, along with the directors of the film, Austrian brothers Benjamin Bergmann and Jono Bergmann.
The movie had its world premiere this spring at the Tribeca Festival and has also been shown at the Munich Film Festival, but Erez emphasized that this first Israeli screening was especially important to her.
Chronicles of an emerging global music star following October 7th
“Crazy, moving, impossible to comprehend, to see this film in Hebrew with Hebrew speakers,” she said. After the screenings abroad, to watch it at the Jerusalem Film Festival, “There’s no doubt it made me nervous, and [seeing it here] gave it a new meaning.”
The movie, which the Bergmanns said took five years to make, chronicles Erez’s life as an emerging global music star, and covers the difficult period of the October 7 massacre and the outbreak of the war, which threatened to derail her international career, as well as a rocky time earlier in her relationship with Rousso, and their decision to have a child.
The movie, most of which is in Hebrew, takes a fly-on-the-wall approach to chronicling their lives, and mixes performance footage, scenes of the two writing together, and other moments in their lives to create a portrait of the duo that will be entertaining and interesting even for those who are not familiar with their music.
It will also inspire admiration for their success at creating music that connects with audiences both at home and abroad, as well as for Erez’s refusal to buckle down to anti-Israel forces and condemn Israel for “apartheid” and “genocide.”
What is necessary is different voices with different experiences
Throughout, she insists that a dialogue about the issues where different voices can speak about their experiences is what is necessary. It also shows that she was willing to pay the price for her stance.
She had kind words for the Bergmanns, who “created the movie with sensitivity, and I’d say, with love,” and thanked them.
As she finished speaking, Rousso joked that the directors, “Don’t understand a word of Hebrew,” and switched to English to say, “She was talking s**t about you.”
The two stars left a moment later, to thunderous applause.
The movie will be shown on Yes Docu.