 1950 - Birth of Amos Gitai in Haifa on 11 October, son of Efratia Munschick Margalit, born in Tel Aviv in the year of the city's foundation, and the architect Munio Gitai Weinraub from Silesia, a former pupil of Mies van der Rohe and Hannes Meyer at the Bauhaus in Dessau, who fled from Nazi Germany in 1933.
1956-1968 - Amos Gitai attends the Reali Hebrew School in Haifa and spends the year 1960 on the Kfar Massaryk Kibbutz in Lower Galilee. 1968-1971 - Compulsory military service. 1970 - Death of his father Munio. 1971 - Enrolment in the Faculty of Architecture and Urban-planning of the Technion in Haifa, where he graduates in architecture in 1975. 1972 - Receives a Super-8 camera from his mother Efratia and uses it to make his first experimental films. 1973 - Yom Kippur War. Amos Gitai interrupts his architectural studies to serve in a rescue unit. His helicopter is shot down by a Syrian missile on his birthday and he is nearly killed. 1975-1979 - Studies at Berkeley in California, where he obtains a PhD in architecture. 1980 - Makes House (Bait), a full-length documentary film for the Israeli television corporation, which refuses to show it. The film, which describes the attachment of Palestinians to their land, is the first of a trilogy of works on the same house in West Jerusalem. The others are A House in Jerusalem (1998) and News from Home / News from House (2005). 1981 - Makes Wadi, the first of a documentary trilogy that continues in 1991 (Wadi, Ten Years After) and 2001 (Wadi Grand Canyon). 1982 - Marries Rivka Markovizky. Field Diary on the West Bank before and after the invasion of Lebanon by the Israeli army. Beginning of work with the cinematographer Nurith Aviv. 1983 - Birth of his daughter Keren. No longer able to work in Israel, Amos Gitai moves to Paris. 1985 - Makes Esther, his first full-length non-doc- umentary film, presented at the International Critics' Week of the Cannes Film Festival and the first part of the "exile trilogy", followed by Berlin-Jerusalem (1989) and Golem, the Spirit of Exile (1991). Beginning of work with the cinematographer Henri Alekan and the actors Juliano Merr and Mohamed Bakri. First retrospective of his films at the British Institute Film in London and the Cinémathèque Française in Paris. Birth of his son Ben Ori. 1987-1989 - Retrospectives in Madrid, Chicago and Washington. The choreographer Pina Bausch is involved in the making of Berlin-Jerusalem, his second full-length feature film, which is shown in competition at the Venice Film Festival and wins first prize at the Istanbul Festival. Beginning of work with the producer Laurent Truchot and the sound technician Antoine Bonfanti. 1991 - Retrospectives in Moscow and Jerusalem. 1992 - Member of the jury at the Locarno Festival. Retrospective in Turin. Amos Gitai creates and films Metamorphosis of a Melody, a stage production performed at Gibellina in Sicily with Samuel Fuller and Hanna Shygulla and subsequently at the inaugu- ration of Venice Biennale (1993). 1993 - Oslo Accords signed by the Israeli government and the Palestinian Liberation Organization. Election of Yitzhak Rabin as prime minister. Amos Gitai returns to Israel, where he makes the "city trilogy": Devarim (1995) in Tel Aviv, Yom Yom (1997) in Haifa and Kadosh (starring Yaël Abecassis and produced by Michel Propper, shown in competition at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival) in Jerusalem. 2000 - Kippur, a films based on his memories of the Yom Kippur War, is shown in competition at the Cannes Film Festival. Beginning of work with the screenwriter Marie-José Sanselme. Awarded the distinction of Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres. 2003 -The Centre Pompidou presents the first complete retrospective of Amos Gitai's work with an exhibition of 88 still from his films designed by the filmmaker. Complete retrospectives in the film libraries of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Haifa. 2004 - Death of Efratia Gitai. Promised Land, the first film of the "frontier trilogy", which continues with Free Zone (2005) and Disengagement (2007), is shown in competition at the Venice Film Festival. 2005 - Free Zone is shown in competition at the Cannes Film Festival and its star Hannah Laslo receives the prize for the best female actress. Amos Gitai is member of the jury at the 62nd Venice Film Festival. Awarded the Roberto Rossellini Prize for his work as a whole. 2006 - The documentary News from Home / News from House, the third part of the "house trilogy", is presented at the Berlin Film Festival with a complete retrospective and an installation in association with the Kunst-Werke Institute for Contemporary Art. 2008 - Awarded the Leopard of Honour at the 61st Locarno Festival. Retrospective of documentaries entitled Amos Gitai: Not Fiction at the MoMA in New York. Beginning of work with Jeanne Moreau in One Day You'll Understand . 2008-2009 - Munio Weinraub / Amos Gitai Architecture und Film in Is- rael: exhibition with catalogue held at the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich and then at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. 2009 - Video installation Citations at the Bordeaux submarine base (1st edition of the Evento biennial). Beginning of work on the family archives with the films Carmel (2009) and Lullaby to my Father (2011). 2010 - The Odéon-Théâtre de l'Europe presents The War of the Sons of Light against the Sons of Darkness+, a work staged in the Boulbon quarry, at the Avignon Festival (July 2009). Amos Gitai publishes the letters of his mother Efratia (Efratia Gitai: Corre- spondence 1929-1994, Gallimard), which are read by Jeanne Moreau at the Odéon-Théâtre de l'Europe and on France Culture. 2011 - Various publications and exhibitions devoted to his parents Munio and Efratia: Traces at the Palais de Tokyo (Paris), the Bauhaus (Dessau, Germany), the art museum of the Ein Harod kibbutz (Israel), and Kib- butz Kfar Masaryk Dining Hall at the MoMA (New York, 2013). Retrospective and installation at the Museo nazionale del cinema in Turin. Amos Gitai inaugurates the Munio Gitai Weinraub Architecture Museum in his father's old offices in Haifa. 2012 - Exhibition at the Rencontres de la Photographie in Arles. 2013 - Awarded the Robert Bresson Prize for his film Ana Arabia, presented in competition at the Venice Film Festival. Amos Gitai receives the distinction of Officier des Arts et des Lettres. 2014 - Exhibition Amos Gitai at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid (curated by Jean-François Chevrier with Elijah Pijollet); solo show at the Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac (Paris); show and complete retrospective Amos Gitai, Architecte de mémoire at the Cinémathèque française (Paris) and at the film cinemathèque of Lausanne with the Musée de l'Élysée (Lausanne). Exhibition Strade/Ways at the Palazzo Reale, Milan. Tsili is in official selection at the Mostra di Venezia 2015 - Exhibition at the galerie Thaddeus Ropac (Salzburg). Exhibition Ways, Palazzo Reale, (Milan). The film Rabin: The Last Day is in competition at the Venice Film Festival. 2016 - Exhibition Chronicle of an Assassination Foretold, MAXXI Museum (Rome), Bozar (Brussels) and the Fondation Lambert (Avignon). Theatrical performance Yitzhak Rabin: Chronicle of an Assassination Foretold at the Avignon Theater Festival in the Papal Palace, with Hiam Abbass, Sarah Adler, Sonia Wieder-Atherton, Edna Stern. Amos Gitai divides his time today between Paris and Haifa. |
