Life According to Ohad

In the film I tried to show a different perspective of our society withreferring to the margins, which most viewers of the cinema and TV doesn’t even know of its existence. To a world build in despair, anger of the status quo and a desire to change that is expressed by total devotion to a cause. All of these combined, with a hope of a change and a faith that with actions there could be a better world.

 

There is a significant lack of understanding regarding the “over sensitive”social change activists like Ohad. This sensitivity can sometime seem like a disconnection from reality, while it’s actually those activist that are connected to the reality (unpleasant as it is) much more than most people. 

 

Never before – at least in Israel - there was afilm that showed the “legal” misery that is being done to animals (in rearing them for food and experiments). Here, for the first time, we are exposed to new and radical ideas about equality and justice for all animals, which bind us to think with criticism about our day-to-day choices.

Self-thought is only possible when all the facts are presented, and here – using Ohad and his friends, living the suffering of the animal daily in the film– I tried to show a small portion of the concealed sights. The radical vegan society in Israel was never revealed, and never was her activist’s pain displayed. The animal rights topic is always silenced by the society, that sees the animals as inferior, as tools for humans to use.

 

It's important to note that this is not propaganda film! It’s about a universal story of ideological disagreement and compromises that requires a dialog. Ohad may present his agenda in the most explicit way, but the film also presents the complexity of the movement and topic.

I like the viewers to have a chance of seeing the reality the same way as Ohad sees it, in his sensitivity to the institutionalized hurting of animals.

I believe that after seeing it, they won’t be able to be indifferent to the injustices Ohad fights.

 

Ohad's authenticity and honesty are inspiring. There is no need to be an “animal enthusiast” in order to understand the pain that he is telling in his personal story.

I believe that any viewer will relate to the disgust of hurting the weak.

Furthermore, the conflicts that the hero needs to cope with against the world he lives in and his own truth are relevant not only to the subject of animal abuse, but also to many more issues, for example repentance or “off the derech”,or induction refusal.

Personally, like the letter Ohad delivered to his parents, this film is my "letter". I, like Ohad see the world as a concoction of suffering that needs to be overthrown, and this is my way to express my stand of the matter.

I’m an animal right activist as well, and I believe that there is injustice being done here. As opposed to Ohad, I didn’t dare to confront my family “till the bitter end”, and the compromises I choose to accept with my (carnivores) relatives are putting me in a conflict. Do I envy Ohad for his courage to go with his principles to the end, even in the price of separation from his family, or do I try and help him with finding a compromise? Good question… 

 

Eri Daniel Erlich 2014