The Wall in Her Hear

 
In memory of Yuval Heiman

Born in Efrat, 28th of Sivan, 5753 (June 16, 1993). Fell in the Gaza Strip, 23rd of Tammuz, 5774 (July 18th, 2014)

The loving couple had a secret perch on the walls of Jerusalem. From there, they could look out over the Old City, think about figures from the past that had lived there and dream of the home they would soon build together. When Yuval Heiman finished the officers course, he became the radioman of the battalion commander and in that role he was killed in Operation Protective Edge. 

Yuval Heiman was the son of Moshe and Zohara, the brother of Arbel, Ashchar and Aluma. He was born in the settlement of Efrat to a founding family—fourth generation on the settlement. Yuval’s friends recount that he excelled in everything—in school, sports, the squad commander course and officers course. On the other hand, he was a modest person and never talked about being gifted. 

Yuval attended the Doron Avot High School in Efrat and was a counsellor in Bnei Akiva. Yuval devoted a great deal of time and energy in the annual summer camp for disabled children that the chapter organized. In the army, he served in the Paratrooper Combat Engineers and was also sent to an officers course, where he served as radioman to the battalion commander.

On June 18, 2014, during Operation Protective Edge, the Gefen battalion in which Heiman served in Training Base 1 was sent to the northern Gaza Strip and was given responsibility for defending the zone. Three days later, he was riding with the battalion commander, Lieutenant Colonel Dolev Keidar, on the way to a location where there was a suspected penetration by terrorists. Two anti-tank missiles were fired at their vehicle. Yuval got out of the vehicle with the battalion commander and the scout. The three of them were killed in the encounter with the terrorists. The driver of the vehicle was also killed.

Interview with Revaya Sharlot, girlfriend of Yuval Heiman z”l
 

Thoughts from Rotem Yarakchi and Reut Eldad who created the film 
When we first read Yuval Heiman's story, we felt like we had suffered an open wound. The beautiful love story between Yuval and Revaya, which was cut short, gave us the feeling of entering Revaya’s world of fresh and oppressive bereavement. The opportunity for us as artists to create the world they imagined together was very emotional.

Through Revaya’s story, we tried to weave a world of fantasy into the walls of Jerusalem, which they so loved. We tried to put ourselves in their place—to imagine what they dreamed about there, where exactly they sat, what they looked at and what they saw. 

More than once during the film we asked ourselves if during all of these walks on the Old City’s walls—a landscape that so many soldiers had died for—whether the two imagined that Yuval would join the ranks of those who will forever walk there as part of the place’s bloodstained history. 

From the press
Yuval Heiman—Animated memories—Beit Avi Chai collaborates with the families of fallen soldiers to create animated films in their memory: The Jerusalem Post April 21, 2015