SYNOPSIS

"The Queen Has No Crown" is Tomer Heymann's poignant meditation on family, loss, and the mental maps of homelessness. The film navigates the intimate lives of 5 brothers and their mother, as they experience the pains of exile and the joys of family bonding. Three of the Heymann sons take their families and leave Israel, one after the other, for "better" lives in America. They fulfill their dreams, but shatter those of their mother. A divorcee, she is left alone in Israel with her two bachelor sons — one straight, and the other, Tomer, gay.

Exploring the politics of belonging, displacement, and sexuality, the film examines the hard decisions one family has to make, and the intractable bonds that unite them in the face of difficult life choices. Throughout, Tomer frames this quest in terms of its greater social and political significance: the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, tensions between Israel's Arabs and Jews, its secular and ultra-orthodox citizens, and the struggle for gay/human rights.

Tomer, combining 8 and 16mm footage with his own work of a decade, shows how the strength of the Heymann Family depends on forces greater than the nuclear family itself. The result, "The Queen Has No Crown", is a powerful and intimate portrait of one man, his family, and the world surrounding them.

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CREDITS

TOMER HEYMANN

Tomer Heymann was born in Kfar Yedidia in Israel in 1970 and has directed many documentary films and series in the past ten years, most of them long-term follow-ups and personal documentations. His films won major awards at different prestigious film festivals including his first film “It Kinda Scares Me”. “Paper Dolls” won three awards at the 2006 Berlin Film Festival and the audience’s award at the Los Angeles Festival. The film and TV series "Bridge over the Wadi”, co-produced with the American ITVS, won the Israeli Documentary Film competition, participated in IDFA Festival's prestigious competition and won many awards around the world. Tomer's new 8-part series "The Way Home" was recently broadcasted by the Yes Doco Channel in Israel and won the best documentary series award at the 2009 Jerusalem International Film Festival. 

Filmography

2011 – The Queen Has No Crown 82 / 85 min. (Berlinale premiere, Krakow International Film Festivals, Frameline, San Francisco Jewish Film Festival, NewFest)

2010 - I Shot My Love 70/56 min. (Berlinale premiere, Best Documentary Award - HotDocs, Audience Award - Taiwan  Documentary Int’l Film Festival, Best Documentary - Side By Side GLBT Film Festival, Best Director & Best Film - Madrid GLBT Film Festival, Special Jury mention - Queer Lisboa GLBT Film Festival, Grand Prix & Best Documentary - Warsaw Jewish Film Festival, Sheffield DOC/FEST). Co-produced with WDR/ARTE 

2009 - The Way Home  8 X 30 min. (Best Documentary Series Award at the Jerusalem International Film Festival and Best Documentary Series at the Israeli Documentary Competition.)

2007- Debut 5 X 22 min. (first prize — Israeli documentary competition)

2007- Out of Focus 52 min. (MONTPELLIER DANSE festival, SF Jewish FF, Haifa Int'l FF)

2007- Black Over White . 50 min. (Mississippi International Film Festival, USA, Barcelona Jewish Film Festival, Philadelphia Jewish Film Festival, Haifa International Film Festival)

2007- Cinderellas 4 X 30 min. (Channel 2, Israel)

2006- Paper Dolls 80 min. ( 3 awards at the Berlinale Film Festival, 2 awards at the Identities Film Festival, the “Best International Feature“ award at the Los Angeles Festival, “Best Documentary“ at the Cinemanila International Film Festival in the Philippines, first prize in Jewish FF in Warsaw) 

2006- Bridge over the Wadi 55 min. (IDFA premiere, sylverdocs, golden award Shanghai Int’l TV festival, Audience award ONE WORLD FF in prague, first prize DOCUDAYS FF in Kiev, Audience award WATCH DOCS human rights FF and many more). Co-produced with ITVS 

2005- Bridge Over the Wadi 4 X 30 min. (first prize — Israeli documentary competition)

2004- Paper Dolls 6 X 30 min. (Best original score - Israeli documentary competition)

2003- Aviv-Fucked-up Generation 74 min. (HotDocs, Bangkok, Minneapolis, Greece)

2001- It Kinda Scares Me 57 min. (Best Documentary Award – Taipei Int'l FF, Best Documentary Award – Haifa Int'l FF, Best Documentary Award – Melbourne Int'l FF, Best Documentary Award – Turin Gay&Lesbian FF, Audience Award – Israeli FF, Israeli Academy Award)

2000- Laugh till I cry 45 min. (DocAviv Int'l Film Festival)

THE COMPANY

Heymann Brothers Films has been operating for over a decade and specializes in long term documentary projects with a social and political orientation, as well as very personal ones. The company was founded by Tomer Heymann, one of the leading documentary directors in Israel. In
2001 he created “It Kinda Scares Me” which won the Academy Award in Israel, and other awards in Torino, Milan, New York, Taipei and Melbourne.

In 2003 his film "Aviv - Fucked Up Generation" came out commercially and brought a vast amount of viewers to the cinemas, as it correspondingly participated in many festivals worldwide.

In 2006 his film "Paper Dolls" won three awards at the prestigious Berlin Film Festival and other awards in Torino, Manila, Zurich, Los Angeles, Copenhagen and more. In 2007 both of his new films "Out of Focus" and "Black over White" came out and participated in many different International Film Festivals ever since. During 2007 Tomer also directed a 4-part TV series called "Cinderellas" for the Israeli Channel 2.

In 2003 Barak Heymann, Tomer’s younger brother, joined the company and has since directed and produced an impressive number of documentary films for television and cinema: In 2005, together with Tomer, he created the TV series "Bridge over the Wadi" for the Yes Doco channel in Israel. The series won first place in the Israeli Documentary Competition and praising reviews. About a year later the Heymann brothers created a one-hour version of "Bridge over the Wadi". The film, co-produced with the American ITVS, participated in IDFA Festival's prestigious competition and won many awards around the world. Their mutual TV series "Debut" (2007) won the Israeli Documentary competition and was screened by Yes Doco channel.

Barak's film "Dancing Alfonso" (2007) was screened at the 2008 SXSW festival, won the silver award in the Shanghai TV festival, and the best directing award in Cronograf Documentary Film Festival in Moldova. His latest film “Lone Samaritan” (2010) was screened at the FIPA Film Festival, Krakow Film Festival, The Human Rights Film Festivals in Paris and Bucharest and won the Best Documentary Award at the Jewish Film Festival in Toronto as well as the Best Documentary award at the Israeli Documentary competition.

Among Barak’s outstanding work as a producer is the film "Lady Kul el Arab" (2008) by the award winning Palestinian director Ibtisam Mara'ana, which won a special jury award in IDFA and many other awards worldwide, "Stalags - Holocaust and Pornography in Israel" (2007) by director Ari Libsker was screened at the Film Forum in New York, in Hot-Docs and many other festivals throughout the world and won the first camera award at RIDM Festival in Montreal, and "Sayed Kashua - Forever Scared" (2009) by director Dorit Zimbalist which was screened at the IDFA Film Festival.

During 2008 four retrospective events for the Heymann Brothers filmmaking work were held in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York and Tel Aviv.

The Heymann Brothers latest 8-part TV series “The Way Home” (2009), directed by Tomer, was broadcast on Yes Doco channel in Israel and won the Best Documentary Series Award at the Jerusalem Film Festival, as well as the best documentary series award at the Israeli documentary competition.

“I Shot My Love” (2010, co-produced with WDR/ARTE) by Tomer Heymann had its world premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival, has participated in many prestigious film festivals around the world, and has won many awards including the best mid-length documentary in HOTDOCS, the Audience award at the Taiwan Int’l film festival, the best film & best director at the Warsaw Jewish Film Festival, special jury mention in Queer Lisboa, best documentary award at Side by Side Film Festival and more. The film is going to be screened in 20 different cities in Germany throughout 2011.

Those days the Heymann Brothers are working on a number of different new projects (documentary films and series), and are teaching documentary filmmaking in different film schools around Israel. The latest production by Heymann Brothers – “The Queen Has No Crown” (2011, by Tomer Heymann) is having its world premiere in the Berlinale on February 12th..

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CONTACT

Heymann Brothers Films
2 Barzilay street
Tel-Aviv 65113
Israel

Office: 972-3-5602701
Fax: 972-3-5604082

Barak: 972-52-2742445
Ranit: 972-52-6202068

E-mail: info@heymannfilms.com

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