Antisemitism and racism capture attention in Armageddon Time
A new, sensitive, coming-of-age story highlighting the African American and Jewish experience is a vehicle to propel two bright young actors onto the world stage. They talk with J-Wire.
Jaylin Webb (left) and Banks Repeta
Set in Queens, New York City in 1980, Armageddon Time is the opening night feature at the Jewish International Film Festival (www.jiff.com.au).
Thereafter, it will be released nationally in Australia on 3rd November.
14-year-old Banks Repeta plays sixth grader Paul Graff, born into a Jewish middle-class family.
With an artistic bent, he is different to other students in his class.
His goals don’t marry with those of his parents, but he is particularly close to his grandfather, Aaron Rabinowitz, a role filled by Anthony Hopkins.
One day, grandad opens up to Paul about the trauma experienced by Rabinowitz’s mother that saw her leave Ukraine and make a new home and life in America.
Jaylin Webb, 16, portrays Johnny Davis, whose start to life has been far than ideal.
From a broken home, Johnny – who is repeating sixth grade – is living with his grandmother who is increasingly ailing, suffering from dementia.
He is treated shamefully by his teacher and his aspiration to be an astronaut appears but a forlorn hope.
Johnny and Paul become firm friends, against Paul’s parents’ wishes.
Armageddon Time is a deeply personal story for writer and director James Gray (Ad Astra).
He revisited his own upbringing to create characters that inhabited his formative years.
Banks Repeta and Jaylin Webb told J-Wire that in casting them, Gray was keen to see what they could bring to the table in their respective roles.
The pair bonded in the short time they had to get to know each other before filming began, and that is immediately evident by what we see on screen.
Banks grew up in the film industry. His father is a motion picture camera operator, and his mother is an actor.
Jaylin was a born entertainer who acted in plays during his middle school years and decided to transition to film during COVID-19 quarantine.
Banks says it was the dinner scenes in Armageddon Time that got him closest to what it was like being in a Jewish family.
Apart from Anthony Hopkins as grandad, Anne Hathaway (Les Misérables) and Jeremy Strong (The Big Short) are cast as Paul’s mother, Esther and father Irving.
“We were so comfortable with each other. We were able to be so tight and have real conversations, even when we weren’t filming.
“That was really nice because a lot of the dinner conversations (in the film) were improv (improvised),” Banks says.
Jaylin says while he is fortunate not to be able to relate firsthand to what Johnny experiences, he has family members who do.
He says he talked to them before he appeared in the film.
“They just told me about their experiences. They told me about how it affected them mentally.
“I really tried to channel that throughout those (troubling) scenes,” Jaylin says.
He would like the film to attract a broad audience “so everyone is aware of the discrimination that black people and Jewish people had to undergo”.
For his part, Banks hopes Armageddon Time reaches people that haven’t experienced the oppression the movie portrays “so they can know what it was like”.
The Jewish International Film Festival starts in Melbourne on 24th October, in Sydney on 25th October and in Brisbane on 26th October.
Opening night on the Gold Coast, as well as in Perth, Hobart and Canberra is on 27th October.
