And There Was Evening and There Was Morning

In Genesis it is written: "Let us create human beings in our image, to our likeness". Mordechai Ardon, a Jewish Pole by birth, student of, among other things, the Bauhaus school, and a friend of Klee and Kandinsky, draws the conclusion from this that, since we do not know what God looks like, we actually know only one thing about him: he is the creator. Therefore, we too must create "even if we only can create little words, tiny words. We must create. It is the only sign that makes us different from the animals. The only token of likeness with God". Mordechai Ardon has taken this assignment seriously and dedicated his entire life to the art of painting. In June 1988, he started painting a triptych about Hiroshima before, during, and after the explosion of the atom bomb. The film And There Was Evening And There Was Morning follows the 93 year old Ardon during the months that he needed for completing the painting. By doing so, director Kapon offers a lucid impression of the creative process and of the painter himself while searching for the right form for the work of art. The documentary begins with images of an earlier work by Ardon: an immense stained-glass window of seventeen by six and a half metres in the University library of Jerusalem. Jesaya' s prophecy can be read in the glass that, one day, there will no longer be war between nations. (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam)