Director and producer Steven Spielberg presented his latest production, The Fabelmans at the Toronto Film Festival; a film about the divorce of his parents and which has received a standing ovation from viewers and critics who place him as an Oscar nominee.

The film which has an autobiographical tone and was co-written with Tony Kusher via zoom during the first days of the pandemic, in 2020, and centers on Sammy, a Jewish teenager who realizes his family is falling apart while cultivating his skills behind the camera.

Steven Spielberg’s film manages to embody that young man and portray a personal profile of the protagonist who lives situations of bullying for their religion in the midst of the artistic influence he receives from his mother and the distance his relationship with his father is taking. According to the director himself, the film describes his parents’ divorce in advance of how he experienced it.

cinephile like few others

During the press conference following the release of the film, the director said: “It was a pleasure to be able to recreate those films”, in relation to the sequences in which the young Fabelman takes a camera and pay tribute to your favorite movies.

“There weren’t many people out there with their 8mm camera; it was physical work, it was a real job. There would be no Pro Tools, so you had to sit there with a Butt Splicer and then you had to scrape the emulsion off the film. You literally glued the film and I have to say that I miss all that ritualSpielberg stated.

Undoubtedly, the director used his experience as a child of divorced parents to pay homage to the influence his parents had on him. Critics have pointed this out The Fabelmans highlights a topic recreated over and over again by the great classics of cinema, such as that relationship of adoration of the character with the separated mother and the painful distance with an absent father.

“At times I have been very sad, it has happened to all of us and divorce is something that traumatizes you, so I decided to tell my parents’ divorce story. I just wanted to tell a story that was completely honest with my memories, that reflected my experience growing up with my sisters and their experiences growing up with me, my mother, my father and my uncle Benny. “

Made during the pandemic

In another section of the press meeting, he claimed that the film was shot during the pandemic. “I remember as the death toll rose and we kept seeing reports of what was happening across the country and around the world, I kept thinking: What will this mean for humanity? How far will this pandemic really take us?

As for the writing process, Kusher, who has collaborated with Spielberg on films such as Lincoln, Monk Y History of the west side, highlighted the emotional element he has with the director. “We’ve been working together for 20 years and I think what makes his films so great is that They have emotional depth. They are not soulless entertainmenthis films have moments of true depth “.

He also pointed out that the camera is treated in a liberating way for the protagonist: “The camera was a tool that made Sammy happy when he was a childbecause it helped him cope with family problems and, at the same time, revealed the darker sides of life.

On the plot, Kusher went a little further: “Loss, danger and risk are part of existence, so in the writing experience I discovered that, thinking about Steven’s life. It’s just an incredibly moving thread throughout the whole movie. “

“This film is a way to bring my mother and father back.”, Said the director at the end of the press conference at the Toronto Film Festival.

Spielberg’s mother, Leah, died at the age of 97 in 2017 and her father Arnold died in 2020 at the age of 103. In the film they are played by Michelle Williams and Paul Dano. Gabriel LaBelle is Sammy Fabelman, the director’s alter ego.

wd