A man’s best friend

A film student captures a veteran actor’s poignant moments on camera – and wins a prize.

By BARRY DAVIS
Itay Netzer 370 (photo credit: courtesy)
Itay Netzer 370
(photo credit: courtesy)
Itay Netzer hasn’t done too badly for starters. He is in his last year of studies at the Ma’aleh School of Television, Film & the Arts in Jerusalem, and his 14-minute documentary, White Dust, recently took second place in the student documentary category of this year’s DocAviv Festival. Although hopeful of gaining some sort of recognition for White Dust, Netzer didn’t think the film would do so well. In fact, the whole project was basically a serendipitous affair.
Whitzt tells the tale of veteran Russian-born actor Yitzhak Pekker and his ailing dog, Brut, on their last day together. On the face of it, Pekker is in the running for the title of a latter-day Job. In the documentary, 29-year-old Netzer goes to Pekker’s house to shoot some footage that the filmmaker hoped would turn into a tangible end product. We see Pekker at home with his beloved canine friend, and there is obviously a lot of affection between the two. But there appears to be something awry with Brut as she hops about the kitchen. Her rear right leg doesn’t touch the ground, and it transpires that the dog has had surgery to remove a tumor. We catch up with Pekker just before he takes his best friend off to the vet for a checkup. At the clinic, Pekker has to come to terms with the realization that he will be returning home alone.
It was a natural subject for Netzer to document, even if he had no idea when he started out that Pekker would lose his pet.
“I identify very strongly with Yitzhak,” says the budding documentarian. “I was given a dog, Din Din, for my bar mitzva, and she died when I was in my first year of studies at Ma’aleh. I love animals.”
Pekker and Netzer first met a couple of years before the White Dust project began.
“A year after Din Din died, I wrote the script for an end of second year project about an old man who goes to the forest to bury his dog,” Netzer explains.
“After he finishes burying the dog, he sees another dog, which starts to follow him. It’s a sort of mystical thing. I looked for an actor, and I got to Yitzhak, who works with the Train Theater. When I got to his home, I saw the relationship between Brut and Yitzhak, and he told me he was worried that the dog would leave him.”
Pekker and Netzer completed the student short, and a year later Netzer returned with a rough idea of White Dust.
“I didn’t know exactly what the documentary was going to be about. I had a character in mind and his relationship with his dog,” says the director, adding that, in fact, he had initially conceived of a more expansive project. “I thought there would be all sorts of layers to the film, but my teachers told me that the essence of the film, the relationship between Yitzhak and Brut, was the whole thing. It took me a while to take that on board, but they were right.”
The scene at the veterinary clinic and the sad outcome came as a surprise to both Netzer and Pekker. Given Netzer’s fondness for animals and his relatively recent bereavement after Din Din died, it is a wonder that the student filmmaker managed to keep his cool and capture the moving moments when Pekker was told that Brut’s condition was far worse than Pekker imagined and that it would be best to have the dog put down.
Netzer says he didn’t always manage to remain aloof and professional.
“I shot most of the film myself, but on the day of the visit to the clinic, I took someone else along with me to do the camera work. There were some moments when I had to go outside to collect myself. That was emotionally challenging,” he says.
The Israeli documentary film sector has grown significantly in recent years, and products from here take part in festivals across the globe. Some even bring home awards.
In terms of human interest stories and other raw material, there is plenty to feed off here.
“Of course, we have all the political and securityrelated stuff here,” Netzer says. “In Finland, for example, I think documentarians maybe have to search for more intimate stories.”
White Dust certainly fits the latter epithet. “It is the more personal story that attracts me,” says Netzer.
There is more misfortune to the story behind White Dust as we see Pekker, after he takes his leave from Brut, go to a nursing home to visit his ailing wife.
“Yitzhak doesn’t feel sorry for himself,” says Netzer. “I think that you are not miserable unless you relate to yourself that way. Yitzhak is getting on with his life.”
Netzer is also moving along nicely. In addition to his burgeoning documentary work, he engages in video art. One of his latest works, Bouncing against the Post, which he created with Tama Ovadia, is the teaser for the forthcoming Performance 0:2 Reenactments and New Versions conference of the School of Visual Theater, which will take place in Jerusalem on May 21-23. •