Hollywood director Steven Spielberg (76) revealed how his films help him personally. His new film “The Fabelmans”, for example, “helped him to fill the void that opened up after the death of my parents,” Spielberg told the “Stern” in an interview. “Every film I’ve made has been therapy, and metaphorically speaking, I’ve always left a part of me in them.”
Spielberg also presented the partially autobiographical work “The Fabelmans” at the Berlinale. There he should also receive the Honorary Golden Bear for his life’s work. The work is loosely based on Spielberg’s childhood. It’s about Sammy Fabelman (Gabriel LaBelle, 20), who grows up in post-war Arizona and gets the idea of becoming a film director after a spectacular train accident.
In his latest film, Spielberg also describes how he was the only Jew in California to face bullying and anti-Semitic abuse. It happened the same way. “Also my revenge on the tormentor. However, we embellished it in the film version,” said the 76-year-old. It was “deeply gratifying” for him to have the very last word in this “special case of anti-Semitism,” the filmmaker admitted.
He could never have imagined that hatred of Jews in his country would ever again take on such proportions. “Right now it’s a clear and obvious threat to our society, both urban and rural. My film doesn’t shy away from anti-Semitism. It confronts it head-on.”
“The Fabelmans” has been nominated for seven Oscars and will be released in German cinemas on March 9th.
The US director revealed to “Stern” that his family had shaped and inspired him. He once rolled his sisters in several layers of toilet paper for a mummy film and repeatedly sprayed them with a water pistol. “In the end, they were covered in papier-mâché from head to toe. It looked terribly real,” recalled the director veteran.
