Rachel and Dave Travel Through Time — 17th of Tammuz

This project didn't start with me.

The lesson plan about the 17th of Tammuz already existed.

So did Rachel and Dave — in a very basic version, closer to an illustration than characters you could believe in.

The organization gave me full creative freedom and didn't intervene in the creative decisions.

My job was to translate the lesson plan into a visual language.

Not to change the message.

Not to invent a new idea.

But to turn an educational concept into a cinematic experience.

The first step wasn't design.

It was writing the screenplay.

I wanted to understand how an almost abstract idea takes shape on screen.

How a child wouldn't just learn about Second Temple Jerusalem, but feel like they were actually there.

Instead of explaining the history, I wanted to let kids visit it.

It mattered to me that the city didn't feel like a historical reconstruction.

I wanted to build a city people actually live in.

See the walls. See the Temple from a distance.

But just as important — see the streets, the people, the market, the children.

Only once you feel the life inside the city can you understand what the walls were protecting.

One of the goals was to take the early versions of Rachel and Dave and give them depth and presence.

Not to reinvent them, but to turn them into characters capable of leading the viewer through the story, and feeling natural inside the world that was built.

That moment wasn't dramatic.

It was watching the kids play soccer in the streets of Jerusalem.

In that moment, the city stopped being a set.

It became a place people live in.