THE QUEEN HAS NO CROWN
ISRAEL, 2011, DVD, color, 85’

DIRECTOR: Tomer Heymann
SCREENPLAY: Tomer Heymann
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Tomer Heymann
EDITING: Ido Mochrik
MUSIC: Ivri Lider, Rona Kenan, Eran Weitz, Israel Bright, Eli Soorani, Itamar Rotchild
PRODUCERS: Barak Heymann, Tomer Heymann
PRODUCTION CO.: Heymann Bros. Film
WORLD SALES: Heymann Bros. Film

‘The Queen Has No Crown’ is Tomer Heymann’s poignant meditation on family, loss, and the mental maps of homelessness. The film navigates the intimate lives of five brothers and their mother, as they experience the pains of exile and the joys of family bonding. Three of the Heymann sons take their families and leave Israel, one after the other, for “better” lives in America. They fulfill their dreams, but shatter those of their mother. A divorcee, she is left alone in Israel with her two bachelor sons — one straight, and the other, Tomer, gay.
Exploring the politics of belonging, displacement, and sexuality, the film examines the hard decisions one family has to make, and the intractable bonds that unite them in the face of difficult life choices. Throughout, Tomer frames this quest in terms of its greater social and political significance: the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, tensions between Israel’s Arabs and Jews, its secular and ultra-orthodox citizens, and the struggle for gay/human rights. Tomer, combining 8 and 16mm footage with his own work of a decade, shows how the strength of the Heymann Family depends on forces greater than the nuclear family itself. The result, ‘The Queen Has No Crown’, is a powerful and intimate portrait of one man, his family, and the world surrounding them.

TOMER HEYMANN
He was born in Kfar Yedidia in Israel in 1970 and has directed many documentary films and series in the past ten years, most of them long-term follow-ups and personal documentations. His films won major awards at different prestigious film festivals including his first film ‘It Kinda Scares Me’. Tomer’s 8-part series ‘The Way Home’ won the best documentary series award at the 2009 Jerusalem International Film Festival.