BAFTA launch marks end of 17-year quest to write film

FORMER Birmingham Lord Mayor Sir Bernard Zissman has launched his first film at BAFTA - 13 years after promising: ‘I never start something I can’t finish’

- GRAHAM YOUNG Special Correspondent

The 17-year journey has not been an easy one.

Obstacles he met along the way included the 2020 Covid pandemic to the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023 - but Sir Bernard steadfastly refused to be derailed from his mission to produce an original story about the creation of the state of Israel.

The film - Theodor Herzl: The Man Behind Israel - stars two of Britain’s leading comedy talents - Sir Stephen Fry and David Baddiel.

And, as if to prove he’s now got showbiz blood to match them, the 90-year-old former city council Conservative Group leader proudly launched the documentary at BAFTA in Piccadilly close to the heart of London’s West End.

One of the driving forces behind Birmingham's ICC, Symphony Hall and Centenary Square in the early 1990s followed by Millennium Point and then Grand Central in 2015, Sir Bernard said making the film had become his longest career project.

Herzl died 121 years ago on July 3, 1904 - aged 44 and exactly 44 years before the confirmed creation of the state of Israel in 1948.

Sir Stephen voices Theodor Herzl in the documentary, with David Baddiel presenting from multiple international locations.

Theodor Herzl: The Man Behind Israel is based upon Sir Bernard’s own 2008 hardback book Herzl’s Journey: Conversations With A Zionist Legend (Devora Publishing), the story of a largely-forgotten Hungarian who dreamed of a permanent home for Jews.

After five years of research, Sir Bernard imagined travelling around Europe alongside Herzl and questioning him.