The Mystery of Aris San

The story of Aris San is made up of all the elements we love as creators. A singer, a talented guitar player, a meteoric rise, hubris, complications with women, drugs, and the mafia, and an unclear ending. We knew that what we needed to do was to continue loving Aris the musician as we always did, and at the same time, we knew we shouldn't ignore the corners as we embarked on a journey to follow the traces he left behind. We interviewed people who were with Aris during his days of success and failure. We collected home videos where Aris was captured, we visited all the places that were once home to him. In Greece, in Israel, in the United States, and in Hungary. We found many puzzle pieces and assembled them to recreate his person and life story. We saw Aris and what and who he left behind. The scars, the longing, and the unrealized plans. That's how we met the pain of his daughter, who saw him for the first time when she was seven years old, we met his manager and intimate friend who remained with an unfulfilled dream of a comeback on the big stage in Israel. We were with the friends who tried to warn him about the mafia, and with the musicians who were with him throughout the journey. We created a film with a soundtrack that was all Aris San. We saw his playing getting better and stronger as he deteriorated. Aris lived in Israel for 12 years, and he changed the Israeli reality much more than anyone could have imagined. It started on the day he fused the Arabic tunes of Enata Omri with American rock 'n' roll and the Greek bouzouki. He bridged the East and the West in the heart of Israeli culture. Aris, for us, is a kind of forgotten cultural hero that we wanted to bring back home.