Natalie Portman was inspired to direct her new film because it reminded her of her family's struggles as immigrants.
The Black Swan star has made her directorial debut with the film A Tale of Love and Darkness, which centres on a mother and son's struggles in Jerusalem during the early years of the establishment of Israel, where Portman was born.
And the actress explains the storyline was similar to narratives she heard growing up.
"I read the book for the first time almost 10 years ago when it came out in translation and immediately I started seeing the film in my eyes," she told U.S. breakfast show Good Morning America on Monday (15Aug16). "I knew that that had to be my first film to direct because it was so immediate in my mind."
"It was so similar to so many of the stories I heard growing up, because my father's side of my family is from Israel," she continued. "So I had heard so many stories about my grandparents as refugees from Europe in the late 1930s coming to Israel, which was then British mandate Palestine, and it's just that shock of what it is when you're an immigrant going to a place that is not anything like you expect it to be."
In addition to directing and starring in the film, the 35-year-old also wrote the adaptation and admits she found directing herself and penning the script easier than she thought it would be.
"It was actually empowering (to write it) because I kept thinking, 'Oh, I'll find a professional writer to write this', and I kept meeting with people and they said, 'You know how to do this, you're explaining what you want', so then I adapted myself," she said.
"I thought it (directing myself) would be harder than it was because there's actually something easier when you watch yourself and you want to change something," she added. "You don't have to figure out the words to use to explain it. You just do it, whereas with other actors you obviously have to find the language that will help them."
