John Battsek and Simon Chinn The Green Prince Interview

John Battsek and Simon Chinn The Green Prince Interview

Cast: Mosab Hassan Yousef, Gonen Ben Yitzhak, Sheikh Hassan Yousef
Director: Nadav Schirman
Genre: Documentary, Drama, Thriller
Rated: M
Running Time: 95 minutes

Synopsis: Mosab Hassan Yousef always sits with his back to the wall and his eyes on the door. He changes apartments frequently. He has to, if he wants to stay alive. Considered a traitor by his family and his people, Mosab is alone. His only friend is his former enemy.

His father is Sheikh Hassan Yousef, one of the seven founding members of Hamas and one of its most popular leaders. He's in prison now. Mosab put him there; to 'protect" him.

For over a decade Mosab – code name: 'The Green Prince" – was the number one source for the infamous Shin Bet, Israel's secret security service. Recruited at 17, he went on to betray his kith and kin to spy for his former enemy in the heart of his father's organisation.

His Shin Bet handler, Gonen Ben Yitzhak, once considered one of the rising stars of the service, risked everything – including treason – to save him.

The special bond between Mosab and Gonen made for one of the most unlikely but effective partnerships in the history of Israeli intelligence. It led to the arrest of top terrorist masterminds, prevented multiple suicide bombings and revealed crucial secrets that would have a direct impact on major political events.

In a world of lies and deceit they learned to trust one another. Ultimately, though, they had to turn against their own in order to save themselves.

Set against a backdrop of recent events in the Middle East, Nadav Schirman's The Green Prince is a multi-layered psychological thriller that will challenge people's preconceptions of the on-going conflict in the region. Combining exclusive first person testimony, dramatic action sequences and never-before-seen archive footage, this is a powerful cinematic experience - a spy thriller that will have audiences on the edge of their seats.

The Green Prince
Release Date: December 4th, 2014

Interview with John Battsek and Simon Chinn

Question: How did you first get on board the project?

John Battsek: I was introduced to director Nadav Schirman by Rafael Marmor in LA two years ago. Nadav is an incredibly dynamic character and he pitched a great idea for a new film. Nadav followed up when I was back in London sending me more information. My Head of Development at Passion Pictures, Nicole Stott, and I really responded to Mosab Hassan Yousef's extraordinary true story. Once we'd watched Nadav-s previous film The Champagne Spy we were convinced that Nadav was a director who had the vision to carry a narrative of this weight and complexity and, ultimately, a film that would deliver all the elements of a dramatic thriller with big screen ambition. Passion Pictures have a strategic alliance with Simon Chinn's Red Box Films, and it was a natural move to show Simon the project so we could produce together – I knew he would respond to the material and to Nadav.

Simon Chinn:John Battsek and Nicole Stott first mentioned the project to me soon after Nadav Schirman had first approached them, and I was immediately intrigued. I had always wanted to make a film set in Israel-Palestine, and had a number of opportunities, but I'd always shied away for one reason or another. Mosab Hassan Yousef's riveting story offered a narrative of such epic, yet very human proportions that it felt like the perfect story to stray into the territory with. Nadav was so clearly the perfect director to bring this story to the screen - and it seemed the obvious next project for my company's ongoing collaboration with Passion Pictures.


Question: What differentiates this film from others tackling the subject of Palestinian-Israeli conflict?

Simon Chinn:I'm not sure I've ever seen a film that offers such a remarkable insight into the inner workings of Israel's secret security service - or Hamas for that matter. Because they operate on the front lines of a brutal and ongoing conflict, the Shin Bet have become one of the most effective and ruthless intelligence agencies in the world - and this film lays bare its processes and philosophy like nothing I've ever seen before.

John Battsek: The conflict is only the backdrop and subtext to The Green Prince. At the core, this film is about the remarkable relationship built up by two people who should be enemies – in fact, they start out as enemies - and who are thrust together in the most unlikely circumstances. We don't attempt to tackle the complexities of the situation in the Middle East directly in the film, but we see it through the lens of this friendship. So, in some way, the film does inevitably shine a light on the conflict, but very deliberately does not embark on a deep analysis of the situation itself.


Question: What kind of security measures did you have to respect during the shoot?

Simon Chinn:We were careful not to announce Mosab's presence prior to or during the shoot and there was security on set at all times. But Mosab himself is, outwardly at least, very relaxed and unworried about his security. He now travels frequently and freely in spite of the obvious dangers.


Question: Would you consider The Green Prince a political film?

Simon Chinn: In spite of the highly charged political context in which the story unfolds, we were always very clear that the film should not betray a political point of view - this became almost a mantra for us. We therefore constantly interrogated ourselves during the process of making the film to ensure this guiding principle remained intact. Inevitably, people who come to the film with a particular political perspective or agenda may choose to perceive a bias in the filmmaking - but our hope is that, watching the film, audiences will see all the nuances and shades of grey that we were so fascinated by when we were making it.

John Battsek: I wouldn't call this a political film, although politics drives the motivations of our key characters. This is an emotional human drama – a psychological thriller - with a political backdrop. It's the human story at the forefront and this is what drives the drama, with the politics providing only background contextualization.


Question: What are you hoping audiences will take from the film?  

 

John Battsek: It's a film that carries huge themes: betrayal, lies, identity, and truth. It's also a film that forces the viewer to assess his or her own moral compass, and the nuanced lies we tell ourselves. But it's also a film about hope. Hope that humanity can and should transcend all barriers.

Simon Chinn: This is a story about an extraordinary and unlikely relationship between an intelligence handler and his source - a relationship between former enemies built on lies but which was ultimately defined by trust and friendship. In the end, a profound relationship emerges based on truth - and in this I think there's a powerful message of hope in an apparently hopeless conflict.


The Green Prince
Release Date: December 4th, 2014