You Should Only Live Twice

Interview With Champagne Spy Director Nadav Schirman

Every guy dreams of being James Bond. The exotic locales, the schmancy cars, the license to kill, the Vesper martinis, the girls. Who doesn’t want to be 007? But what if you’re James Bond and you have a wife and a kid? Wolfgang Lotz was just such a man. Known as the ‘champagne spy’ for his luxurious style, Lotz led a double-life as a Mossad agent in Cairo and as a businessman in Paris. German born, blue-eyed, blonde and uncircumcised, Lotz was recruited by Mossad to investigate German scientists developing rockets for the Egyptian government. Posing as an ex-Nazi, millionaire, horse-breeder, Lotz lived the high life in Cairo while flying back to Paris to convey his intelligence and visit his wife, Rivka, and his son, Oded. Although never revealing his secret to Rivka, he confided in Oded, swearing him to lifelong secrecy. To complicate matters, Lotz became infatuated with a German refugee, Waltraud Neumann, whom he married and made his partner in espionage. Eventually caught and arrested, Wolfang and Waltraud were put on trial. Remarkably, by clinging to his German identity, Lotz convinced the Egyptian court he was a German spy and was spared the death sentence he would have undoubtedly received had they known he was Israeli. Eventually released as part of the prisoner exchange following the Six Day War, Lotz returned to Israel with Waltraud. Needless to say, bringing home a second wife complicated the family reunion. He divorced Rivka and became estranged from Oded. Retiring from the spy-biz proved to be equally difficult. Life as a pensioned-civilian was a bit of a let-down from being a secret agent with a bottomless expense account and he never re-adjusted.

In a style resplendent of 60’s and 70’s spy and caper flicks, first-time documentarian, Nadav Schirman, depicts the exploits of Wolfgang Lotz from the perspective of his son, Oded. Speaking frankly and fully about his father for the first time, the film becomes as much his story as his father’s. Revisiting old haunts in Paris and retracing his father’s steps in Germany, Oded shares the secrets he held with his father and relates the damage his father’s profession brought to his family. Interviewing a number of Mossad and Israeli intelligence officers, as well as former agents and operatives who worked with Lotz and using an astonishing array of home-movie footage shot by Wolfgang and Oded, Schirman provides a uniquely intimate portrait of a spy. Winning the Jury Award at the Doc Aviv International Film Festival, Champagne Spy will be screening at SIFF on May 31st and June 1st. Schirman will be attending the festival and will be present at both screenings. I caught this interview with him last week via e-mail.

You've said that spies have fascinated you since you were a child. When did you become aware of Wolfgang Lotz and his story?

A friend had given me an old worn out copy of Lotz's book ‘The Champagne Spy’ saying, "look at this, there's a film in here." I read the book and couldn't believe it, it was like a real James Bond story. I was skeptical and started researching. The more I uncovered, realizing that Lotz's account was just a façade for the true drama, the more I felt compelled to develop a film out of this.

The film is very much a collaboration with Lotz's son, Oded. When did you first encounter Oded and how did the film, Champagne Spy, come about?

I was trying to get the rights to Lotz's book and all the publishers, in the US, Germany and Israel, told me the rights were back with the author. So I tried finding Lotz or any family he may have, but only found dead ends. No one knew anything.

One day I took my son to a swimming lesson and next to me sat an older man, who's son was also in the lesson. He asked me what I was doing. I told him I was trying to develop a film on Lotz. He asked, how's it's going? I said not good, I can't find him or any family of his. The man then said "maybe I can help you, give me your number." Two weeks later I get a call, "Nadav?” "Yes." "The man you're looking for, he's got a son, his name is Oded Gur Arie, he's coming to Israel next week, here's his number." And he hung up. Turns out the guy I met at the pool was a former Mossad man. Call it divine intervention, luck, synchronicity or whatever, but that's how I got my foot in the door.

When I met Oded and realized he had never talked about his father, I knew that was the angle. Then when I saw the 8mm footage he had shot as a 12 year-old, documenting his father's secret visits to Paris, unknowingly recording his family's dissolution and his father's sinking into a covert identity, that's when I knew I had a film.

Having grown up in a number of cities yourself -- Paris, Montreal, Brussels, Tel Aviv -- as the son of a diplomat, did you feel a particular kinship with Oded?

Yes, and with Lotz, as I experienced time and time again the gap between life on a "state mission" and the life back in Israel. There, we had chauffeurs, flashy flats, body guards etc., and here, the normal life. So one thing that gripped me was the great gap and identity crisis covert agents must feel when coming back home from a long mission.

As one would imagine, Israeli intelligence officials are notoriously secretive and yet, many of them appear in your film. How did you approach them and what was the process of getting them into the movie? Were they willing to talk openly about Lotz, because it was a old case?

Once Oded came aboard I found a few "guardian angels" that helped soften the Mossad and Intel guys and once they realized that I didn’t come to criticize or reveal any operational procedures, but was merely interested in the human story, they really opened up and even "adopted" me in a manner. It took a few meetings with each to establish a relationship of trust. After that it was amazing. I was told that no one, no filmmaker, journalist or writer, ever had such access as we had. I think it's because we chose to deal with the personal and emotional side, which they all want to talk about it seems.

I was astonished at the amount of archival footage you have in the film. Not only of Lotz's mission, trial and imprisonment in Cairo, but of his visits to Paris. At one point I thought maybe you were recreating the footage with actors, because there was so much of it. The home movie material came from Oded, but where did the footage of the trial and the prison come from? Did you have to get co-operation from the Egyptian government to use it?

We carried out extensive research for footage all over the world. Most of the trial footage in Egypt is in custody of the Egyptian secret service, so we had to find alternative sources. The footage comes from Germany, the UK, the US and Israel and is the fruit of hundreds of hours of research. Some shots we recreated using visual effects, in a way so that they blend in with the rest of the footage.

I couldn't help noticing a feeling of nostalgia in the film. Lotz provided information which helped Israel win the Six-Day War, a war in which Israel clobbered Egypt, Jordan and Syria and increased its territory. One couldn't help but think how lucky Israel was to have an enemy like Nasser. Is there nostalgia for the period in which Israel dealt primarily with nations and armies and not elusive, guerrilla organizations like Hezbollah, Hamas and the PLO?

That's a tough one. I guess as you suggest, things are not so clear-cut today. It's not armies against armies anymore, like in Iraq or Africa, but rather factions fighting each other or armies fighting guerillas. This makes the spying business a lot more complicated as the factions/ guerillas are harder to penetrate and are often cut from their chain of command. But I wouldn't say there's any nostalgia for warfare. Except maybe for weapons dealers…

One of the things I most enjoyed about the film was how dynamic it was. Not just the wonderful photography and editing, but the use of a Jazz soundtrack and split-screen imagery, which makes it very reminiscent of 60's and 70's crime and espionage movies, particularly the Thomas Crown Affair. Were you directly inspired by that film or others like it?

Crown is a good example. We also looked at a lot of 60's films, especially Saul Bass credit sequences with split screens. We tried to give the whole film a 60's look and feel, visually and musically. The editor – Joelle Alexis – was a great source of inspiration for the Jazz, which we thought fit well with the dark and complex story line, where things are not so clear cut.

The soundtrack by Ran Bagno was terrific. Can you tell me a little bit about who he is and what it was like to work with him? Also, is there any chance of the soundtrack being released?

Indeed, Ran did an incredible job, inspired by our editor Joelle Alexis as well. Ran is one of the leading composers in Israel for theatre and dance, and is now moving into feature films as well. A lot of people are asking about the soundtrack, so maybe there will be a release of it. Some record labels have already approached our producers about it.

You have another film in the works, The Second Life of Abraham Potz. Is this also a spy story? Will it have a similar look and feel to Champagne Spy?

‘The Second Life of Abraham Potz’ is a fiction film about old age, it's about a retired psychiatrist, lonely and frail who starts killing people. He discovers the murders add excitement to his otherwise dull and depressing life and dreams of being caught, so there will be a big trial where he can stand up and accuse the real culprit, society, and the way it treats old people.
Old age, the loneliness of the elderly and their alienation in western society is a subject that fascinates me. We're all going to be there one day. And this story gives me a great opportunity to explore it with humor. So it will be a different style.

I am also writing a fictional adaptation of ‘The Champagne Spy’ – which centers more on the love story of Lotz and Waltraud.

One of the chief goals of Champagne Spy is to take us beyond the myth of espionage to show us a more intimate portrait of spies and their families. Many people thought Munich accomplished that, yet some argued that Spielberg made the Mossad agents too sensitive and introspective. A friend of mine thought, that of all the characters in the film, the single-minded, remorseless agent played by Daniel Craig came closet to being like a real intelligence officer. What was your take on Munich? And how do you like Daniel Craig as James Bond?

Munich is problematic for me. It's based on a book, the authenticity of which is denied by Mossad, and I also thought it was a tad flat, one dimensional. From my experience, Mossad agents and operatives are highly intelligent and often very sensitive people who suffer as they must, like most soldiers, but they set their feelings aside for the sake of the mission. I met with some of the real people involved in the Munich story and they didn't seem remorseless or cold, rather dedicated men who did their job for the sake of what they then thought to be a greater good. Of course, with the perspective of time, one may reconsider what is good and what is not.

I think Craig is a great actor but, personally, I’m not a fan of Craig as Bond – the sophistication of the earlier Connery or Moore is lacking.

Speaking of Bond, is there a tradition of spy movies in Israel? Is there an Israeli James Bond?

No. There's no tradition of spy films in Israel, but I’m sure there are many real-life Israeli James Bonds, we just don't hear about them and they probably don't look anything like Connery, Moore, Craig, etc… and they certainly don't dress as well.