“It’s hard being a teenager, it’s even harder when you have to grow up with your enemy,” is the logline of Hot Spot, a new 35×5 limited documentary series (which can also take the form of a feature-length picture) directed by Karin Kainer (Kosher Beach) and produced by Osnat Saraga for Tel Aviv-based, Paramount-controlled Ananey Studio (who has previously delivered shows, dramas, documentaries and animation for major players such as Netflix, Nickelodeon, MTV, CBBC, and HBO).
The project, set over the course of five years, is “an intimate coming-of-age journey featuring a remarkable group of international students, some from enemy nations.” The story begins within the walls of “a prestigious international boarding school in the heart of Israel,” namely the Eastern Mediterranean International School (EMIS), where students “are given the tools to become future leaders.” However, the two years that start within the green expanses of the so-called youth village, in a pastoral atmosphere of innocence and youth, develop into an experience of on-going conflicts, combining nationalities, prejudice, raging hormones, love, sex, and broken hearts.
The students come from various nationalities and economic backgrounds, and most receive full scholarships. The countries include Palestine, Israel, Afghanistan, Morocco, Myanmar, Nepal, the United States, Thailand, England, Italy, Sweden, Germany, Yemen, China and South Sudan, to name a few. “At the peak of their adolescence, they experience a range of emotions such as youthfulness, love, gender & sexual exploration, and social status. These experiences blend with more serious issues such as war and peace, occupation, national identity, refugee status, and the impact of Covid-19,” the creative team explains to BDE.
After completing their studies, the group members take different paths. Some pursue higher education; others serve in the Israeli military or volunteer for an NGO in the West Bank. “Despite encountering individual challenges and hurdles along the way, they remain unified by a shared understanding and experience, having weathered the same trials. Together, they strive to tackle global conflicts, having already confronted their national demons during their school years,” the team reveals.
Speaking about the core themes covered by the documentary, they tell Business Doc Europe: “This is a documentary that showcases the power of friendship and the challenges faced by Gen Z, a generation born with the Internet, and forced to grow up during the pandemic. In today’s world, where global and national, private, and public spheres are intertwined, these youths have the ability to look beyond the illusions presented on social media and take charge as the creators of this digital realm.”
“The graduating class of 2021 is an exceptional group of young individuals with diverse international backgrounds and educations. They have come together to form an innovative and pioneering community; this experience has significantly influenced their minds and souls as they embark on their journey into adulthood. They prioritise the values of their new society over archaic traditions, offering a fresh and distinctive unique voice, that hasn’t been heard before.”
Moreover, Hot Spot dares to pose other important questions about youth and adulthood – “questions about the destructive or empowering force of the peer group, about the distinctions between the popular and the outsiders, about the loneliness of the adolescent, about the nature of home, and whether prejudice can truly be overcome.”
The documentary will be made up of “a series of verité scenes and encounters and powerful moments along with interviews at various points in time, reflecting the passage of time and the [protagonists’] coming of age.”
“In addition to our camera, the students were equipped with personal cameras to document private moments typical of adolescence, including monologues that allow us to get their emotions in the first person. The students’ point of view is often cynical, witty, and full of humour, and this is the charm of the project—we get to feel close to them through the light-hearted language they use to describe their pain.”
The protagonists are Maher, Emily, Tom, Lola, Basel and Renata. Maher and Emily are Palestinians from Bethlehem who have harboured a deep-seated animosity towards each other since childhood; Tom, a third culture kid (originally from Sweden and England) who has been ostracised by everyone because of his political beliefs; Lola, a posh British girl with an aristocratic demeanour and a connection to the monarchy who “rebels against the conventions of her upper-class upbringing and defies expectations” by “choosing a Palestinian boyfriend and enlisting in the army”; and Basel and Renata, the couple known as “the lovers,” who “embody the stages of loneliness and intimacy as young adults.”
An unexpected encounter with Maher prompted director Kainer’s interest in the school and its students. “The secrecy around this institution made it clear that I had found my next project. After two months of persistence, I was given unlimited access to EMIS—to the boarding school, the faculty, and most importantly, the students and their families, whom I accompanied over the course of two years of school and three years after graduation. I am currently in the second half of the shoot, following the heroes separately, as they set off on their individual paths and still surprisingly together as a group,” says Kainer.
“Now, the students’ parents are part of the picture too, a missing element from their time at the boarding school. From the outside, the school looks like an oasis of peace in the heart of the storm. But there is a gap between the declaration I read on the school walls, calling for peace and change, and the complexity of reality. In fact, EMIS is a kind of dystopia, the hell of adolescence wrapped up in politics alongside being a home and a family to teenagers,” the director discloses.
The team were forced to pitch Hot Spot remotely, as it was not possible for them to travel safely to Rome. The humanitarian tragedy unfolding over the course of the last few days made the project and some of its themes even more timely and urgent than ever. Marco Spagnoli, Head of MIA Doc, told BDE how important it was to host the project and allow the people involved “to make their best possible pitch.” Shaken by the recent events, the team didn’t want to do so, but Spagnoli and his team insisted that it happened.
“Then they’ve sent me a very touching video – which I’m sure they’ll use later on – depicting the kids speaking among each other. This is a story of hope, but that video lacked hope. We insisted they show the original trailer, as it’d give a totally different perspective different on the work,” he said.
Spagnoli underscored how the project duly received a great ovation at MIA, and sparked the considerable interest of the audience in attendance and that of some commissioning editors keen to discover more details about it.At MIA, the producers disclosed they are “looking for any kind of collaboration” and in particular co-production partners, which will help them bridging a financial gap of about 500,000$ to bring the project to completion.
