Director Statement
As a creator you often times feel like a hunter. More often than not, hunting provides you with momentary stories that fade away just as fast as they hit you. It’s rare to come across a story that you simply can’t let go of.

‘Snowland’ belongs to that second category of stories. And it happens to be so because it’s based on a true story, Amir (the leading role is called Eyal in real life) is best freinds with Jonni, and that’s me (Jonni Zicholtz). I’ve been living with our story for almost 7 years, since Eyal’s son, Maor (in the script the character is based on Tamara), died of cancer when he was 3 years. While Maor was sick, Eyal broke off his long term relationship with Maor’s mother (the character that’s based on Alona in the script), and their relationship officially ended when Maor passed away.
During which, I also broke up with a woman I was about to marry and walked out on her at the 11th hour.

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With ‘Snowland’ I wanted to describe the process of two men in their late 30s, breaking down and building themselves back up again just as their about to hit their 40 year old crisis. They’re great friends that find themselves facing a huge crisis, one that raises a lot of questions about the lives they’ve lived, their dwindling libidos and the decisions they’ve made at major crossroads in their lives that turned out to be disastrous. Two men that are living small lives and losing two major loves, a wife and daughter. And despite their immense pain, they’re searching for a ray of light, a smile, and the silver lining beyond the dark mountains ahead. The two leading characters of this film aren’t heroic or strong, they’re not about to save anyone, perhaps just themselves. And maybe their friendship, which is the only thing they have left.

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As a filmmaker, you get a shot once every 4 or 5 years to tell a story, ‘Snowland’ is the story I’ve chosen to tell this time and it’s without a doubt, my most personal film yet. Maor’s death was such a terrible blow, a pain that can never heal and this film is dedicated to his memory. But what I wanted to focus on primarily in the film was male friendship and how you cope with it during difficult times, when it seems as if it’s about to completely fall apart after so many years of friendship, while having to come to terms with myself, looking inwards and accepting who I am, with growing older, but still maintaining my inner child but also learning to take responsibility and committing without running away, just as I’m about to turn 40 years old, the age in which they say men face their biggest crisis. The film is a journey of redemption of two men, two kids, two best friends.