Image by Getty Images

Natalie Portman played a ballerina in the grip of psychological trauma in “Black Swan,” but the Israeli actress said she had lots of support while directing her first film, about the childhood of Israeli intellectual Amos Oz, shown in Cannes.

Portman both directs and stars in “A Tale of Love and Darkness,” based on Oz’s autobiographical novel of the same name focusing on his relationship with his motherFania, who committed suicide when Oz was 12.

Oz’s mother, played by Portman, was a Polish Jewish refugee from a moneyed family who felt lost in the poverty and violence in Jerusalem during the period surrounding the formation of the Israeli state in 1948.

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

In Portman’s movie, she yearns for the forests of her childhood and spins fabulous tales to entertain her son, until despair totally darkens her life.

“It’s been a really incredible experience,” Portman told Reuters in an interview on Sunday, talking about the making of the film which garnered mixed reviews after its screening out of competition at the Cannes International Film Festival.

“It’s been really challenging but I think that every challenge has helped me grow more and luckily I’ve had many people around me – my family, my friends and my crew who helped me so much throughout that I felt so well supported that it was never an existential crisis during it.”

Trade publication called the result a “drearily empathetic” film that would rely on Portman’s star power to sell it, while Britain’s Guardian called it “a serious, well-made adaptation” of the book.

Asked why she had wanted to direct a film, she said: “The way to feel alive is to change and to try new things, to stimulate yourself, to be afraid, do things you’re afraid of.”

Portman said sdapting Oz’s novel brought the actress closer to the writer and intellectual, who is one of the darlings of the Israeli left and a longtime supporter of the two-state solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“I’ve gotten to know him more and more throughout the process. Now I feel like family.

“I’ve played his mother, in a way, so in a strange way it feels like he’s my child and I’m so proud of him,” she said.

Over the past 20 years, Portman has appeared in films such as “v for Vendetta,” “Thor” and “Star Wars,” and won an Academy Award for her role in “Black Swan.” — Reuters

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

2X match on all Passover gifts!

$90 → $180 $180 → $360

$360 → $720

Other amount