Logline
At the Jerusalem Biblical Zoo, a Palestinian and an Israeli zookeeper must navigate the impending loss of a beloved, dying rhino named Shalom. In telling their story, the film wrestles with notions of captivity, personal and political relationships, and the wistful longing for peace in a region plunged into war.
Meital Zvieli - Director
Meital Zvieli graduated from Jerusalem’s Sam Spiegel Film & Television School screenwriting program with honors. She has over 25 years of experience as a freelance editor, screenwriter, producer, director, and television format developer for all Israeli broadcast channels.Her feature-length directorial debut, which she also produced and edited with Itamar Alcalay, The Camera of Doctor Morris, won the Oscar-qualifying Best Israeli Film Award at Docaviv 2022. Most notably, Meital was the Head of Research for the animated documentary Waltz With Bashir by Ari Folman, a Golden Globe and Cesar winner for Best Foreign Film and Oscar nominee for Best Foreign Language Film. She was editor and screenwriter for The Last League, a docu-series about Jewish and Arab football players competing in the last league of Israeli football. Along with writing and editing, Meital directed Adrenaline, a docu-series examining Israelis’ struggle with technology’s takeover of everyday life.
Avigail Sperber - Producer
Avigail Sperber is a documentary director, producer, and cinematographer originally from Jerusalem. After graduating from Ma’aleh Film School, Avigail has gone on to create award-winning films that have screened at prestigious festivals around the world. Her two most recent films have won major awards in Israel: Inbal Perlmutter – If You Let Me Go (2023) won Docaviv’s Best Israeli Film Award and the Israeli Academy Award. Her other recent film The Three Of Us (2023) won Best Documentary Award at the Jerusalem Film Festival and had its international premiere at DOC NYC. Her 2010 film, The Hangman, received Special Mention at IDFA and went on to screen at Full Frame, Visions du Reel, and more. Her film Probation Time (2014) won the Best Israeli Film Award at Docaviv and screened afterwards at True/False and Krakow Film Festival, among others. In recent years, through her production company Pardes Productions, she has produced and shot several additional documentary films and series.