WGTC: Mentioning Tarantino, it’s no secret that he had some very positive things to say about your film. Now, this was only your second feature, and for Tarantino to say that…
Navot Papushado: We quitting, right now. [Laughs]
Aharon Keshales: We already quit! We’re just doing press now.
Navot Papushado: It’s just downhill from here!
WGTC: Going out on top, right? What does it mean to be praised by someone like Tarantino though, what was your reaction, and did he try to contact you?
Navot Papushado: It’s a funny and sad story, we flipped a coin…
Aharon Keshales: I was in Chicago, entertaining old Jewish grandmothers in the Chicago Film Festival while he was in Busan, Korea, talking and having fun with Quentin Tarantino himself and Bong Joon-Ho! [Looking at Navot] I have nothing to say to you!
Navot Papushado: We flipped a coin. Aharon got Chicago, I got Busan. A day before our second screening, Aharon called me and said, “OK Navot, I think Nicolas Cage and Tarantino are in Busan. Maybe you can get one of them to see the film.” I was like, how? How do I do that? The city is so big!
Aharon Keshales: I just wanted a video of Nicolas Cage, just saying something. Doing a monologue or something. [Laughs]
Navot Papushado: It was this miraculous coincidence that Quentin just showed up in the screening, not only that he was there, but for all the films he only had one slot, he only had one film he could see before he did the Bong Joon-Ho press party. He just approached me before the screening and said, “OK, I picked your film because I like the title and the briefing sounds fun.” He sat through the entire film and stayed for the Q&A. It was like, what are the chances he would see the film in Korea of all places?
Just to get his endorsement is a big influence, and he was not only one of the biggest influences on us, but he was also one of Aharon’s biggest influences when he became a film critic. Aharon was a professor and film critic – he was my professor.
Aharon Keshales: Eh, I spent most of my life giving five star reviews to Quentin Tarantino. [Laughs] I always talked about his films in class, I did half a semester on Kill Bill 1 and 2, or Pulp Fiction – I was obsessed with his work. [Quentin’s endorsement] was like hearing Elvis say, “Hey, you’re not such a bad singer yourself.” Ok, I can quit!
Navot Papushado: You also have to remember, [Big Bad Wolves] is a small film from a very small country, that’s only the second genre film to come out of that country – and we idiots made the first one. It’s also a small budget in terms of Israeli films – it’s been an overwhelming year and the success, the way the film has been received in all these films festivals, being acquired by Magnolia right after Tribeca, we were already walking on sunshine. We couldn’t believe that a Hebrew speaking revenge film from Israel was getting that much attention – at least here. We’re still shocked and overwhelmed.
It also did really well in Israel. It won five Israeli Oscars for a brutal, violent film, it was the number one film until Alfonso Cuarón – Gravity came and kicked us out. We’re OK with that. [Laughs]
Aharon Keshales: We won the Best Film Of The Year by the Israeli critics association.
Navot Papushado: We couldn’t ask for more, it’s been overwhelming. We thought we were making this entertaining, violent, and fun film, then all of a sudden we get this reaction we couldn’t anticipate. It’s funny to get to the end of this journey, because we almost did not travel to Busan. It’s so far, and we were tired, but getting [Tarantino] on board really put a spotlight on Big Bad Wolves, and helped get people to notice it. We couldn’t be more appreciative of his endorsement.
Aharon Keshales: A lot of people bash [Tarantino] for choosing a film, but he’s just doing his job. There are a lot of striving film directors across the world. If he spots something, even if it’s The Lone Ranger that everyone hates him for putting on his list, but he really likes it, and when he talks about it, you understand why he likes it. When I was a film critic, I was just like Quentin Tarantino. I would give four or five stars to The Lone Ranger because even if everybody hates it and I love it, I still have to analyze it and tell you why I love it.
Navot Papushado: We want to endorse his next film! It’s too overwhelming because at the end of the day we still come from an industry that’s just starting to learn horror genre filmmaking, and it’s only our second feature, so everything that happened to us is really, really humbling.