According to director Aharon Keshales, South of Heaven is a movie about lost time, spending your last moments with loved ones. “It’s the kind of film Hollywood rarely makes these days,” he said. Yet, armed with only 25 days and a shoestring budget, Keshales and his cast and crew managed to pull off the film of the director’s dreams.
Keshales was born in Jaffa and studied at Tel Aviv University’s film school, but his love of acting, performing, writing and movies dates back to his childhood.
“Growing up I used to love acting and performing. I liked writing short horror stories, the kind of stories that should make your teacher summon your parents for a special conversation,” he told The AJN.
By the age of 12, Keshales had decided he wanted to be a film critic. It was when he was lecturing at university that he was lured into making the first Israeli horror film, Rabies – something he admits, he never dreamed would happen.
After Rabies earned huge international success, Keshales went on to direct Big Bad Wolves and suddenly, Hollywood came calling. But for Keshales, it was writing and directing South of Heaven that he really craved.
“It was my passion project, a love letter to the love of my life, Lilach. It took me five long years to find finance, but I made it happen,” he said proudly.
For Keshales, it’s an amazing feeling finally seeing the film released in the US last October. South of Heaven represents Keshales’ deepest fear – losing a loved one.
“I got the idea for the film during my honeymoon. It was a late marriage, I was 37, she was 39. And we felt as if we needed to compensate for all the years we weren’t together,” Keshales explained.
“So, I came up with the idea to make a film about a guy who went to prison for 12 years, and when he comes out, he learns that his fiancée has only one year to live. He wants to give her everything, but nothing works as planned. It’s a real heartbreaker.”
South of Heaven stars Jason Sudeikis and Evangeline Lilly, both of whom don’t really fit the crime-thriller mould. While Sudeikis has most recently found success playing an American football coach brought in to manage an English football club in Ted Lasso, he is known for his comedic roles, while Lilly is always associated with Lost, The Hobbit trilogy and The Wasp. But according to Lilly, it was the bravery of her character, Annie, in South of Heaven, that drew her to the role.
Keshales recalls a moment when Lilly questioned the film’s ‘sweetness’. Explaining that the film was shot chronologically, the first moments Lilly experienced were romantic scenes. But for Lilly, it all comes down to Annie’s bravery because she’s literally facing her own death, telling Digital Spy, “In some ways, you can say that she represents bravery that you haven’t seen in any of my other more badass, kickass characters, because she is going to die. There is no ifs, ands or buts about it. That’s coming for her. That’s happening sooner than later.”
But filming the movie wasn’t without its challenges. There’s one scene that goes for three minutes. It had to be filmed in one take and the crew wanted no special effects. As Keshales explained, every bullet, every blood squirt and every muzzle flash happened in real time. It meant that every time someone missed the mark, the shoot had to start all over again.
“We did six takes and none of them had worked out,” he said. “We had time for one last take, and we made it happen. I’ve never seen an actor so happy and proud as Jason Sudeikis was that day.”
Another challenge was the limited budget, which Keshales says sometimes means you must shoot about a dozen pages of dialogue in a single day. It also meant limited time on locations, such as the bowling alley which they only had access to for one day, or the 45-minute ‘magic hour’ to shoot an entire romantic scene as the sky turns pink. In filmmaking, this means you one have one chance to get it right.
Every bullet, every blood squirt and every muzzle flash happened in real time…
“It was crazy, but my favourite scene in the film is the one where Annie and Jimmy are singing The Beach Boys song during magic hour. It was worth it,” Keshales recalled.
It’s this love and devotion that Keshales really romanticises in the film.
“If people feel the need to hold the hand of their loved ones at the end of this film or call their parents or make amends with someone they hurt in the past, I’d be the happiest man alive,” he said, before finishing with some advice: “Cherish every moment with the people you love and no matter what happens, always say something nice to your loved ones just before you hang up the phone or close the door behind you.”
This idea is, after all, the heart and soul of South of Heaven.
South of Heaven is now available to buy or rent on digital platforms.
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