Three Works For Piano

Dani Gal probes the theme of memory, and reconstructs personal and forgotten collective stories to create a dialogue with current political events. In Three Works for Piano, he re-enacts three episodes in the history of avant-garde music: the performance of John Cage’s famous 4’33‘’ in Israel in the late 1970s which was interrupted by a nationalist chant from the audience in the hall; radical composer George Antheil’s 1923 concert in Budapest, where appeared before the audience with a loaded pistol; and the Wiener Gruppe’s demolition of a piano in 1959. These events play against the words of an Israeli soldier about the violence carried out against Palestinian protesters, and the role of militias in the occupation of the West Bank. Tension pervades the film, between witnessing, silence, and listening, and leads to an unexpected reflection on dominant national narratives.