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The Documentary No Man's Language chronicles five years in the life of the director's step-grandfather, a cross-dressing holocaust survivor who over the span of 40 years created an international language, with its grammatical and phonetic rules, that only he speaks. This is a story of a Jew who doesn't stop wandering. Between places, wives, genders, languages.



No Man’s Language
Dana Levy, Israel
2008, 45 mins
orignal sound, English subtitles

This 45 minute film chronicles five years in the life of Ron Israel, who was married to my grandmother for 17 years until her death.

Over the span of 40 years, while living off German funds for holocaust survivors, Ron worked full time at creating “Yartima”, a language with an over 6000 word vocabulary, which only he spoke. He hoped that one day his invented language would serve the world as an international language.
He is a holocaust survivor whose complex identity unfolds throughout the film.

During the film I discover that he is also a cross-dresser, and has closets full of woman’s clothing. To my surprise he doesn’t care what society thinks of his non conformist ways, as he walks around Tel Aviv in wearing skirts.

This is a story of a Jew who doesn't stop wandering. Between places, genders and languages, A man who felt he could not live by the rules of society, so he invented his own.



Dana Levy was born in Tel Aviv and Lives and works in New York. She works with photography and video/ video installations.
She did her Post Graduate in Electronic Imaging at the Duncan of Jordanston College of Art (Dundee, Scotland) and holds a BA in Graphics from Camberwell Art College (London).
Her work investigates the historical, social, and political situations, while dealing with memory, identity and the relationship between culture and nature, between the wild and the cultivated men-made . She participated in various artist residencies including: “Le Havre/ New York:Regards Croises” 2011, Art Omi New York 2011 , I-park, Connecticut 2011, 2009-2010 Triangle Arts Association New York, A.I.R O'artoteca Milan, Italy 2007, OK center for Contemporary Art, Linz, Austria 2003
Prizes include 2008 Young Israeli Artist Award, 2010 Dumbo Arts Festival studio award, 2006 Hamburg Short Film festival jury award.
Solo exhibitions include at: Nicelle Beauchene NYC 2010, Habres+Partner Gallery Vienna 2009; Tavi Dresdner Gallery Tel Aviv 2008; Rosenfeld Gallery, Tel Aviv 2004; Haifa Museum of Art 2004.
Levy took part in group exhibitions including at The Israel museum, Jerusaelm (2011,2008); Lush Life, Invisible Exports Gallery NYC (2010), Museum on the Seam, Jerusalem (2006, 2010), Tate Modern, London (2010); Cleveland Museum of Modern Art (2009-2010)- Open Plan Living Helena Rubinstein Pavillion Tel Aviv (2008), Jewish Museum Amsterdam (2008);, Tel-Aviv Museum of Art(2006); OK Center for Contemporary Art Linz, Austria (2003)