Natalie Portman claims director's chair with Hebrew biopic

Natalie Portman has been a familiar face in front of the camera for more than 20 years. Now the Oscar-winning actor has moved behind the lens as the writer and director of her first feature film: A Tale of Love and Darkness.

The film — which is entirely in Hebrew, with English subtitles — is an adaptation of Amos Oz's autobiographical novel by the same name. It tells the story of Amos, a boy growing up in pre-statehood Israel in the 1940s, and his mother Fania, a Polish Holocaust survivor struggling to adapt in a new land. 

Portman herself plays Fania in the movie. 

Today Portman joins guest host Gill Deacon to discuss her decade-long interest in the novel, her passion for Isreal's storytelling tradition, and the double-edged intensity of a mother's love. 

A Tale of Love and Darkness opens in the U.S. on Friday, and hits Canadian theatres on August 26th.