Keren Ilan

Shot across Vietnam over the course of a month, That Song by Keren Ilan is this week’s Music Video of the Week at the Berlin Music Video Awards. What began as a small, highly personal production grew into a film shaped over a much longer period of reflection and editing, with only two people on location for much of the shoot.

At its centre is a question that extends beyond the film itself: what does home mean when belonging to one place has never felt straightforward? Directed, shot and performed by Keren Ilan @kerennilan alongside cinematographer Yohad Elkarif @yohadpintoelkarif, the video was filmed over a single month and edited roughly a year later — a gap that let the material settle before it took its final form.

“Because Yohad and I were in a relationship at the time, we had to navigate emotional boundaries throughout the production,” Keren explains. Food poisoning, a two-person crew, and the demands of acting in and directing the film at once all reshaped the plan as the shoot went on.

With only a gimbal and a tripod between them, every scene had to be approached creatively and flexibly. Edit and colour by Ella Michaeli @ella_michaeli and graphic design by Dan Deutsch @dvstudio.psd complete a film made for anyone who has felt they don’t fully belong to one place — and a reminder, as Keren puts it, that “home can be a feeling, not just a place.”

Why we picked it

Selected for Intimacy and Restraint

What drew us in was patience. A gimbal, a tripod and two people, given a year to reflect before the edit took shape. Restraint here reads as confidence rather than limitation.

Credits

• Director / DOPKeren Ilan — Directed, shot and performed the film, spending a month in Vietnam documenting and filming before returning to the material a year later to shape the final edit. @kerennilan
• CameraYohad Elkarif — Cinematographer on location for the full month, working with only a gimbal and a tripod across every scene. @yohadpintoelkarif
• Edit & ColorElla Michaeli — Shaped the finished film from a year of accumulated material, setting its pacing and colour. @ella_michaeli
• Graphic DesignDan Deutsch — Designed the film’s graphic language and titles. @dvstudio.psd