Adi Halfin

Dec 12

Director and Screenwriter—September through December ’21

Website adihalfin.com | Based In Berlin, Germany

Q: You’ve mentioned that part of your experience at Peleh was figuring out how to detach your ego from a creative project in order to help it move forward. Can you explain?

A: This is something that happened during my profound collaboration with my mentor Xandra Castleton. In the same way that I’ve been able to let go of a piece of the process when working with an editor or a DP [Director of Photography], I realized I should do the same thing with a screenwriter. So I am now working with a screenwriter developing a mini-series about the war in the Ukraine. It started as a feature film screenplay, which we wrote in ten days. It happened very naturally and very quickly, and this is thanks to my collaborative experience during the residency.

Q: What’s happened with the projects you worked on when you were in Berkeley?

A: My screenplay “Maya” (working title) is soon to reach another draft. There’s still a lot of work to be done, but my time with Xandra was so precious. It really made me understand a lot of things about the story, the process and myself. She gave me quite a few valuable tools.

Q: And there is another, more autobiographical project in the works too, right?

A: Si, my partner, documented our time there on video and we are currently working on editing the footage to become a short documentary about motherhood and anxieties. We’re close to finishing the edit and hope it will come out in the next year.

Q: Part of the value of the Peleh experience is the slowing down of time. One of your goals for your residency was to move away from the fast-paced commercial projects, which you have been able to do well and quickly, and sink down into more personal projects, which take more time.

A: Because we were in a supportive environment in the residency house, and I didn’t have to worry about making money and taking care of all the daily things, I was able to stay in this bubble and focus only on creating and also reflect on how I want to come out of there as an artist. I’m a slow processor for some things, and I needed that kind of time.

Q: The garden of the house is its own kind of bubble, of calmness and nature, where time seems to stand still.

A: Our family [Si and daughter Nico] had so many days together sitting in the garden and talking. We had so many realizations about ourselves as artists and as people, and how we wanted to create things, and resolutions of what we would do. So much of our conversations till then were focused on survival, especially during COVID, and just being able to sit was a pivotal moment for our family.

Q: Your daughter Nico learned a lot about squirrels and skunks in and around the backyard.

A: We miss the backyard very much. It’s so great when nature comes for a visit. We met a lot of squirrels, which ate all our apples and we even had a thrilling encounter with a raccoon! I’m a city girl, but I love being in nature. In Berlin we don’t even have a balcony and I miss this. The connection to nature we had in California was really profound, and I felt much more connected to myself. We traveled a lot. The American landscapes are so vast and bigger than life — it’s something I’ve only experienced there. There is an energy there, with nature and the ever-changing scenery, which amplified something in me. The residency is a mental place I often go back to, imagining myself sitting with Si in the garden, settling into ourselves as artists, and how we wanted to make that life work as a family. It generated a profound energetic change for us.

Adi Halfin is an award winning director and screenwriter. She graduated the Sam Spiegel Film School with honors, and her short films have traveled the world in prestigious festivals such as Cannes and Berlinale and won numerous prizes worldwide.

In addition to directing, Adi teaches production and directing in film schools, and dance film workshops around the world. Adi is currently working on her first feature film and directing music videos, documentaries and commercials.