Born in 1980 in Awash, Ethiopia, Alamork moved to Israel in 1991. Following a documentary research job, Alamork was caught under the spell of cinema. She studied at Tel Hai College where she directed her first short Mulu (Special Mention, TLV Student IFF). She continued to the prestigious Sam Spiegel Film & Television School and graduated in 2012. During her studies, she directed Korki (Montreal IFF, Wiesbaden IFF, Wolgin Competition at the Jerusalem IFF and more) and her diploma film Cleaning Time.
Facing the Wall, a short film produced by Black Sheep Film Productions, premiered at the 2016 Tel Aviv Student Film Festival and won the prize for Best Independent Film and the prize for Best Dramatic Short at Jerusalem Film Festival. Fig Tree which has just been awarded support from World Cinema Fund will be Alamork’s debut feature film.
On May 25th 1991, 24 hours after my family informed me that we were leaving our home in Ethiopia; I woke up to a white wall in a dingy hotel room in Israel. I remember closing my eyes and begging my guardian angel to make the white wall disappear, to beam me back to my bed at home, where I would wake up in front of the newspaper – covered walls in Ethiopia.
Every step and look I took on that first day in Israel was an encounter with powerful frustration. My family had dreamed of Israel for so long, and had fought so hard to get here, but in reality, the experience of moving here was traumatic, like entering another, strange universe.
I remember going down the stairs towards the hotel's dining room, seized by fear and overcome with nausea, trying not to look around in order to minimize my exposure to this new reality. The most difficult of all was the thought that with every step I took, I was giving my consent to this new reality, moving further and further away from my home, walking away from the option of going back.
FACING THE WALL is the story of a young girl who immigrated with her family and had to leave her boyfriend behind in Ethiopia. She wakes up to a foreign life in Israel. Through the heroine, I wish to describe my own sensual experience -similar to an amputation without anesthetization- one that is felt through the entire body and nervous system.