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The Accursed (Episode 2: Yona Wallach)

Directed by: Hagai Levi
60 Minutes, 2014, Documentary

In the last two years of her life, the poet Yona Wallach suddenly became a public figure. The scandal caused by her poem “Tefillin” had serious cultural and political implications, her poems set to music became radio hits, and the way she dealt with her cancer was covered intimately by the entire media. Hagai met Yona once as an adolescent and was exposed even then to the cruelty and madness so closely associated with her. He returned to her years afterward to document her as she took account of her life and described the love she felt for the young man living with her. Yona speaks the way she wrote and lives, with boundless intensity, intoxicatedly beautiful language, and rare courage.