Giving Tom Shoval the credit

Celebrated filmmaker opens up about his 'Life Without Credit'

- By HANNAH BROWN

DANA IVGY in 'Life Without Credit.' TOM SHOVAL

((Courtesy of United King Films/Meidan Arama) (Courtesy of United King Films/Meidan Arama))

"I wrote the film in two weeks, in a kind of fever," said Tom Shoval of his latest film, Life Without Credit, which opened in theaters around Israel on Thursday.

Life Without Credit is a brilliant, if often difficult, film about Libby, a mentally ill woman, played by Dana Ivgy. She is smart, funny, and tormented, fearing abuse and persecution at every moment as she roams Tel Aviv looking in vain for her legal guardian.

Shoval, who is one of Israel's leading filmmakers, has had a unique career. He attracted widespread attention in 2013 with his first feature film, Youth, about two brothers whose family is deeply in debt and who kidnap a wealthy classmate to raise money.

The brothers were played by David Cunio and Eitan Cunio, twin brothers who had never acted before. They won raves for their performances around the world, and the film caught the eye of Oscar-winning director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (Amores Perros, The Revenant), who became his mentor.

Gonzalez produced Shoval's next film, Shake Your Cares Away, which is about a nurse (Berenice Bejo of The Artist) in Israel who suddenly becomes rich and starts running a kind of luxury shelter for homeless people out of her beach house.

David Cunio, the Youth star, chose not to pursue acting but he was in the headlines again after Hamas kidnapped him and his family on October 7, 2023.

While many filmmakers did not know how to address October 7 and the war, Shoval made a documentary about Cunio and his plight, A Letter to David, which was shown worldwide, including at the Berlinale, the Berlin International Film Festival, where it premiered.