My Father's House

My Father's House (Hebrew: בית אבי) is a 1947 British Mandatory Palestine-American drama film directed by Herbert Kline, with a script by Jewish-American novelist and journalist Meyer Levin. Kline and Levin produced the film. The cinematography is by Floyd Crosby. [1] [2] The film was an official selection of the 1950 Venice Film Festival. [3] One of the lead actors was the Israeli sculptor Yitzhak Danziger, who was cast due to his exotic appearance. [4] At the time, Ronnie Cohen, the lead actor, was nine years old. He had been born in Britain to a Zionist family and had immigrated to Israel when he was three. The director spent a few months looking for an English-speaking child until he found Cohen through the film's make-up artist, who was the hairdresser of Cohen's mother. [5] The music is mainly composed of Hebrew folk songs and occasionally Maller-Kalikstein music; the music editor was Henry Brandt. [6] The locations were all in Mandatory Palestine, and are now Israel: Afikim, Ginosar, Gvulot, Kfar Hittim, Kinneret, Kiryat Anavim, Ma'ale HaHamisha, Ma'abarot, Nirim and Ramat Rachel. This is an English-speaking film because it was made for the American-Jewish audience. The budget was provided mainly from wealthy Jewish residents of Palestine and Americans, and the remainder from Zionist institutions. [7]