Dayan, Asi

Asaf Dayan was born in 1945 in Moshav Nahalal in the family of Moshe Dayan - the future Chief of the General Staff of the Israel Defense Forces and the Minister of Defense of Israel . He was the youngest of three children - his older sister Yael became a politician, and his brother Udi became a sculptor ^[1] . Asaf’s relatives also include former Israeli President Ezer Weizman and the poet Jonathan Gefen .

After serving three years in the paratroopers (he will take part in three wars over the next 24 years of reserve service), Asaf graduated from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem , where he studied philosophy and English literature.

Dayan was married several times; He has four children from different wives and girlfriends, including the actor and journalist Lior Dayan . In 2009, Asi was arrested for assaulting in a state of intoxication against his last girlfriend, who was in the last months of pregnancy ^[2] . The court sentenced 64-year-old Dayan to a year of imprisonment conditionally and obliged to undergo regular drug testing ^[3] , since he had already been detained several times by the police and was hospitalized several times in connection with drug use ^[4] . Shortly after the verdict, Dayan suffered a heart attack ^[5] . He never managed to recover to the end and died on May 1, 2014 ^[6] .

Already the debut role of Asi Dayan in 1967 in the film “ He walked the fields ” , which became a cult in Israel, based on the novel Moshe Shamir brought him national fame. The following year, he appeared in John Houston ’s Walk with Love and Death , and in 1970, in French film director Jules Dassin's The Promise at Dawn as the young Roman Katsev , becoming the Golden Globe nominee as “the most promising debutant " ^[7] .

In 1977, Dayan played the heroic major paratrooper in another Israeli patriotic film "Operation Jonathan" , nominated for an Oscar . However, with age, Dayan parted with the image of a young Zionist Sabra , praised by him at the dawn of his career. After the Lebanese war, he performed several roles in anti-war tapes, including in the film Ori Barbash , Behind the Grid , which was launched at Oscar, where he played a convicted leftist activist for anti-state activities. His changing life position was also reflected in the first films in which he acted as a director - “Invitation to the Murder” (1973), “Feast for the Eyes” (1975). In 1976, he filmed the first-ever comedy on an army theme - “Height Chalfon does not respond” ( Hebrew. גבעת חלפון אינה עונה ) with the popular comic trio “ Pale Face Tracker ” (later the same actors played in the 1979 comedy Schleager) where Dayan, besides the script and direction, was also a songwriter).

Dayan reached a new level in the 1990s when his “nihilist trilogy” was released - “ Life by Agfe ” films (for which he received the national film award “Ophir” as a writer and director and was nominated for the main prize of the Berlin Film Festival ) “ An electric blanket named Moshe ” (also awarded “Ophir” for the best script ^[8] ) and “ 92 minutes ” (original name “Mister Baum”; “Ophir” for the script and the main male role and nomination for directing, and and "Golden palm" at the Festival of Mediterranean cinema in Valencia and a nomination for " Olot Hugo "in Chicago Film ^[7] ). The films of the trilogy - about the life of a Tel Aviv pub, about the misadventures of a Romanian prostitute and her Israeli pimp and about the last minutes of a successful businessman - show the meaninglessness and purposelessness of everyday existence, focusing on the contradictions between national ideas and the personal world of man. The leitmotif of the films can be the phrase from the “Electric blanket”: “No goals. Live point.

In the 2000s, Dayan released several more successful film projects, including the appearance in the role of his own father, Defense Minister Moshe Dayan, in the 2004 television film Silence Silence, showing the events on the eve of the Doomsday War , as well as the Ophir-awarded films “ Something good will happen to you soon ” and “ What is hidden behind the Sun ” (the latter also received the prize of the Jerusalem Film Festival ). Among his works in serials, the role of psychologist Reuven Dagan in the series “At the Reception”, for which he twice won in 2006 and 2008, was awarded the prize of the Israeli Film and Television Academy ^[9] . He was also nominated for "Ophir" for the role of a rabbi in the film "Summer Holidays" (in English hire - "My Father, My God"), and in 2009 received his eighth national film award for achievements during his career. The most recent nomination for “Ofir” received Dayan’s script for the 2011 film “ Doctor Pomerantz ”, which the author himself calls the “fourth part” of his film trilogy of the 1990s ^[10] .

Since the late 1990s, three documentary films on Asi Dayan have been released on Israel’s television screens: “We live. Point ”(1999),“ Life Y ”(serial 2005) and“ Life as a rumor ”(serial 2012). Dayan also published two collections of poems and the novel "Content" (1989).

Acting work

Directing

Scenarios

Awards

• "Ofir" for the best major male role - 1997 ("92 minutes" - Miki Baum), 2006 ("What is hidden behind the Sun" - Yitzhak)
• “Ophir” for the best male supporting role - 2005 (“Something good will happen to you soon” - Abraham)
• "Ofir" for the best director work - 1992 ("Life on Agfe")
• “Ofir” for the best scenario - 1992 (“Life according to Agfe”), 1994 (“Electric blanket named Moshe”), 1997 (“92 minutes”)
• Festival of Mediterranean Cinema in Valencia - Golden Palm (1998, “92 minutes”)
• Jerusalem International Film Festival - the prize for the best acting work (2006, “What is behind the Sun” - Itzhak)
• Prize of the Israel Film and Television Academy for the best male role in the drama series - 2006, 2008 (At the Reception - clinical psychologist Reuven Dagan)

Nominations

• “ Golden Globe ” - in the nomination “the most promising debut” (1971, “Promise at Dawn” - Romain Katsev)
• Berlin International Film Festival - “ Golden Bear ” (1993, “Life on Agfe”)
• Chicago International Film Festival - “Golden Hugo” (1998, “92 minutes”)

• Asi Dayan (Eng.) On the Internet Movie Database
• Asi Dayan in the database of Israeli and world cinema "Idibi" (Hebrew)
• Biography in the online encyclopedia JRank (English)