This is a film about human relationships and what it takes to cohabitate, written and directed by a husband and wife team, one English one Spanish.
ONLY HUMAN grew out of three obsessions of husband and wife co-writers and directors Dominic Harari and Teresa De Pelegrí . Namely family, sex and the Middle East. Putting it bluntly they say, "The big issue of our times seems to be how
to avoid killing the person we're supposed to co-exist with."
This story of a Jewish daughter returning to her supposedly liberal agnostic family with a Palestinian boyfriend stirring up racial, religious and political tensions takes the form of a romantic comedy of errors. "The Palestinian-Israeli conflict is a tragic situation which by perpetuating itself has reached a level of absurdity. It is ridiculous to keep killing each other in the 21st century for no gain when a political solution exists. Comedy is liberating. It allows us to take distance, view the absurdity of a situation, save us from being consumed by negativism and seeing everything as impossible, and we wanted ONLY HUMAN to be an optimistic film," the couple explain. Ultimately, although the film carries political overtones, ONLY HUMAN is first and foremost a comedy. "Our motto was make laugh, not war," say the filmmakers.
Though written in NYC, where the couple had holed up in a tiny sublet apartment, initially the story was to be set in London. Producers Mariela Besuievsky and Gerardo Herrero of Tornasol films became intrigued by the project. They had previously produced the film SINVERGUENZA that the couple had co-written and they convinced the filmmakers to transplant ONLY HUMAN to Madrid. "It was a big risk to transpose this film to Spain because the Jewish community is quite small and there is no cultural Jewish tradition," says Besuievsky. "But approaching a different subject also made it an interesting challenge." None the less it was a story that the directors felt was particularly relevant to Spanish life. The idea of bringing your boyfriend home to meet the family is still very much part of the modern Spanish experience, as is the phenomenon of children well into their twenties or older still living at home with their parents. That the boyfriend should come from a completely different background to the family is becoming more and more common in Spain thanks to the flow of immigration making Spanish society more heterogeneous and cosmopolitan. As the directors observe, "Our contemporary Spanish Jewish family has sparked particular interest and curiosity in Spain, as it is a reality that exists but that has never been portrayed on film or television before."

FAMILY
ONLY HUMAN is a film that not only talks about cohabitation between two lovers, but also between fathers and mothers and brothers and sisters within a family. On the one hand the Dalinskys are a family enlivened by any number of eccentricities - a little girl who makes believe she's pregnant, a teenager obsessed with orthodox religion, a blind grandfather who likes to flick a knife between his fingers. However in these idiosyncrasies, lies one of ONLY HUMAN'S triumphs - representing a family that feels essentially true to all experience of family life that can be both loving and infuriating. "Family for us is a form of masochism, simultaneous pain and pleasure, a source of intense happiness that really makes you suffer," explain the filmmakers.  As the film's veteran screen diva Norma Aleandro who plays the family matriarch Gloria says, "It is an absolute truthful relationship and just the same as I have in my own family. We love each other very much even thought we think differently about some issues and we argue about them."
De Pelegrí  and Harari elaborate further: "Each character was conceived to fulfil a typical family label: the castrating mother, the non-existent father, the perfect daughter, the black
sheep of the family etc. We worked with opposites."

A SPANISH STORY WITH UNIVERSAL RESONANCE
Spain like every country has a long history of religious tensions and persecution. There are many reasons why the film's message of tolerance is relevant to contemporary Spain, the conflict in Euskadi for example. While the protagonists of ONLY HUMAN are specifically Jewish and Arab, the film's themes of cohabitation and tolerance have a universal resonance.  "The message translates internationally," say De Pelegrí and Harari, "because there's not a single country in the world which doesn't have similar conflicts and issues to deal with. People are finding that whenever violence is used to try and resolve things, it fails miserably."
Today, Spain is dealing with the social upheaval brought about by mass immigration, as is all of Europe. As allegory the film refers to cohabitation between people from other countries with different languages and religions and race. The grand themes are fraternity, love and peace. On the film's particular relevance for contemporary Spain, leading man Guillermo Toledo (Rafi), speaks strongly. "I think this film comes at a very good moment, because right now there are so many laws in Spain that try to criminalize immigrants without legal papers. It's a necessary time to talk about this."
Producer Mariela Besuievsky observes how the film's message of tolerance has become ever more important following the Terrorist attacks on Madrid trains on March 11^th this year. "We were a little bit shocked because some of the 'jokes' in the film such as David, the younger brother saying that Rafi is a terrorist because he has tapes in Arabic, actually reflected the paranoia that happened in Spain after these attacks."
In ONLY HUMAN by bringing the conflict down to a human on human level, free from government politics, the family and prospective new member find out that they have more in common than they imagined. "The whole point of it is that we're all the same," sums up producer Patrick Cassavetti. "Politics, religion, multi-nationals, all those forces strive to diminish and subjugate that. That is the sadness of the world we live in. We probably wouldn't be in the mess we're in if there were a greater understanding of this."

A HUSBAND AND WIFE TEAM
That the film is the opus of a husband and wife team is in itself a neat comment and further reinforcement on the film's themes of cohabitation. Teresa De Pelegrí  and Dominic Harari's view on their decision to work together is simple. "Some people tell us we're crazy writing and directing together being married, and they may have a point, but then filmmaking for us is like sex, or ping pong, more fun when you're two than one."
De Pelegrí  and Harari are used to other people's amazement at their working practice. "The producer of the TV movie we directed (ATRAPA-LA) bet us that we would divorce before the end of the shoot. He couldn't conceive of working with his wife for even five minutes. Every marriage is its own world. Maybe if we stopped writing and directing together we'd start hating each other. We have one rule, which we stick to like the Corleones: never personal, strictly business."
Norma Aleandro, points out "A husband and wife directing is not as crazy as the proposal of the script itself. A proposal of that kind needs a bit of craziness." While Cassavetti admits that the idea of working with a duo on a film about cohabitation tickled him: "It intrigued me that it was a Spanish/English, Husband/Wife team. I thought, well there's a challenge!" Besuievsky agrees. "It was very strange," she says. "They define themselves as two bodies with one head and they discuss incessantly, and have a lot of respect for each others opinions. They are like synchronised beings."
Being directed by a husband and wife team might have also been a challenge for the actors, but as Guillermo Toledo explains, "it was like being directed by one person, because Teresa concentrates on the technical side of the filmmaking and Dominic takes care of the actors." Aleandro fondly elaborates further, "What happened, that was very funny, is that it was Dominic, who doesn't speak Spanish fluently, who gave us better instructions. Most of the fun was correcting his mistakes!"
Indeed ONLY HUMAN in itself is a living testament to the triumph of cohabitation and people working together. Guillermo Toledo explains, "that was one of the paradoxes of the film: we have to prove that a husband and wife could work together by their creation of the script and the film."

THE SPANISH/UK CO-PRODUCTION.
British producers Patrick Cassavetti and Adrian Sturges of Greenpoint Films joined the production of ONLY HUMAN, collaborating with the hugely experienced director/producer Gerardo Herrero and producer Mariela Besuievsky of Tornasol Films. Cassavetti had worked previously with Tornasol on The Galindez File, directed by Herrero and starring Harvey Keitel and Saffron Burrows. "We got on great, and decided to repeat the experience with a totally different kind of film," says Besuievsky. She was responsible for sending Greenpoint the script for ONLY HUMAN which immediately impressed Cassavetti and Sturges.
Cassavetti elaborates, "I've been offered a lot of chances to do co-productions from England and I often don't know why the British are involved! But with this particular film, it's such a quintessentially European subject and what is going on is very much of its time. When you think of the movement of different nationalities within the new expanded Europe, people are going to have to settle down and get on with each other."
Sturges adds, "I read the script, laughed out loud, immediately read it again and felt it was something we should absolutely get involved in. It's so rare to find something as relevant, involving and entertaining as Dom and Teresa's screenplay."
In addition to assisting in developing the script and post-production, in order to make the co-production work, Cassavetti and Sturges set about providing British creative technicians. British Composer Charlie Mole worked on the film's distinctive soundtrack. Furthermore, in Director of Photography Danny Cohen they found someone with an understanding of the subject matter, and most importantly the directors' raucous and exuberant trademark style. Cohen worked entirely with a hand held camera and had an instinctive feel for the rhythms and timing of the film's sense of humour.
"The concentration of action in time and space gives the story a kind of live energy," explain the filmmakers. "It was important for us to keep the pace fast and agile. To this end we chose a fluid handheld style of shooting which we had already used in the TV movie we directed before ONLY HUMAN. Danny's operating was also seminal in achieving a fluid handheld style that avoided gratuitous excesses and virtuosity. The camera only moves when justified by the movement of the actors."
"It's quite brave," marvels Cassavetti. "We approached several cinematographers and a couple had said because this film is in a foreign language I won't be able to serve the director's well enough. Danny was fearless and he immersed himself in the film." To help him further, much of the directing on set was done in English.
In the world today the sources of indigenous film funding within individual countries are becoming increasingly limited, not least in the UK following the scaling down of Film Four and other funding bodies. Cross border co-production is becoming increasingly prevalent as a means of survival within European cinema. "I do feel there are times when it's really good for British cinema to invest in European cinema in the way that in the past they have done with us," says Cassavetti. "I think it's the only way we're going to survive."

THE CASTING
Each member of the cast cuts their own highly distinctive impression on the screen from Max Berliner cast as the Dalinsky family's blind grandfather Dudu, to the six-year-old granddaughter played by Alba Molinero.
At the centre of the family drama is Rafi, the Palestinian boyfriend of the Jewish family's favourite daughter. The filmmakers had originally hoped to cast an Arab actor to play the part of the shy, bumbling academic. In fact it was Spanish actor Guillermo Toledo who finally clinched the part. As Guillermo says, "I actually approached them. My agent gave me the script, after telling me I had to read it because he thought I could play Rafi well. I read it. I loved it. And probably it's the best script I've ever read. So I just called them and offered myself. And when they couldn't find an Arab actor they gave me a chance."
Toledo says he had his own reservations as to whether he'd be convincing as a Palestinian. "I had many reservations," he laughs. "The physical part was alright because Spanish and Arab people look very similar in many ways. The problem was the accent and how to talk. I discussed this a lot with the directors and they told me they didn't want any special accent. This is a character who has been living in Spain since he was 7-years-old. It made it easier for me."
Patrick Cassavetti echoed these initial fears before being won over by Guillermo Toledo's performance. "I was sceptical at first," he explains. "I thought we should have cast a real Palestinian, but from the moment I saw the first rushes I knew we'd made the right decision." Best known for his comedic performances, Toledo perfectly embodies Rafi with a warmth and sense of humour beneath his initial awkwardness perfectly suited to ONLY HUMAN'S tragic-comic key. "Guillermo is a born comedian," say the directors. "He normally plays more extraverted characters, and with Rafi he really did something different."
Scratching Rafi's anxious streak is the future mother in law and ruler of the roost, Gloria. Neurotically protective of her family and with a tendency to cast herself as the martyr, she's also a deeply loving character with a little bit of everyone's mother in her. While she's patient enough when it comes to her own family's idiosyncrasies, her favourite daughter's Palestinian fiancé is a step too far.
For this key role it was important to find a star with an international flavour. As a heavy weight of Latin cinema with almost 50 years experience Argentinean acting legend Norma Aleandro was the obvious choice. Mariela Besuievsky comments that while Aleandro is one of the biggest names of Spanish speaking cinema, she also had an understanding of the "typical Jewish mother, because that community is very big in Argentina."
"When they suggested Norma Aleandro I thought that was a great idea," enthuses Cassavetti. "Apart from being a really terrific actress she's been quite successful in a number of Argentinean films that have travelled well." Her best known performance as the Argentinean housewife in the Oscar winning THE OFFICIAL HISTORY in 1985, about the disappearances under the military dictatorship in Argentina, confirmed her reputation as a world class talent and garnered a Best Actress award at the Cannes Film Festival.
Aleandro's initial attraction to ONLY HUMAN was like Toledo's, for the wise humour of the script. "While it proposes a theme as hot as the relationship between Jews and Palestinians, I realized straight away it was done with lots of humour, but also with respect," she says. Indeed the opportunity to work with Aleandro was a major coup for the other cast members. As Toledo explains, "It was a great pleasure working with her because she's a master for all of us. We all knew she was going to be great, because she has a lot of experience and talent, but working with her was a real gift."
Marián Aguilera cast as Reni the favourite daughter with the unsuitable boyfriend, is extremely well known as an actress of theatre and television in Spain, and was also recently celebrated for lighting the Olympic torch in Barcelona. For the filmmakers, "Marián proved perfect in bringing out Leni's multitude of contradictions: beautiful and insecure, calm and completely neurotic, sincere and a liar, intelligent and completely uncynical with an almost evangelical belief in romantic love and tolerance."
As the straight talking, sassy, and sex crazed Tania the filmmakers cast Maria Botto, a hugely prestigious Spanish actress. As De Pelegrí and Harari say, "Maria is an actress who has life pouring out of every orifice. She brought to Tania the carnality and extroversion that the character demanded." Though an old colleague of Toledo with whom she had studied drama ten years previously, ONLY HUMAN marked the first time the friends worked together. The teenage brother, and would be fanatic David was also embodied by an actor cast close to type. They explain, "Fernando Ramallo has an innate deadpan comedy and quirkiness which were perfect for the character David. His own obsessive nature fitted the character like a glove." Finally, Max Berliner who plays Dudu was what Besuievsky describes as "the big discovery." After an enormous casting session in Buenos Aires, they found Berliner in a very prestigious theatre company. "He is of Jewish origin," she says, "and understood his character inside out."

THE FILMMAKERS
Teresa De Pelegrí  and Dominic Harari - Directors

Husband and wife team Teresa De Pelegrí  and Dominic Harari met in New York whilst studying for their masters degree at Columbia University. Their first collaboration as writer-directors was the short film ROIG (1994), acclaimed at several international festivals including Venice, Sundance, New York, Edinburgh and London. Next was Gusto one of five sketches of the film EL DOMINIO DE LOS SENTIDOS (1996). Then came ATRAPA-LA (2000), a TV movie they wrote and directed for the Catalan TV3 network which brought to light several new bands discovered on Barcelona's indie music scene.
As screenwriters Teresa and Dominic learnt the craft of comedy writing, co-writing with Joaquín Oristrell Spain's major comedy writer in the 1990s, who has since turned to directing. The trio have collaborated on the films NOVIOS (1999), SIN VERGUENZA (2001) and the upcoming INCONSCIENTES (2004). They are also the authors alongside Sigfrid Monleon and Ferran Torrent of LA ISLA DEL HOLANDES (2001). In 2002 they achieved the distinction of being doubly nominated to the Goya Awards for best original screenplay (SIN VERGUENZA) and best adapted screenplay (LA ISLA DEL HOLANDES).