On the evening of 4 November 1995, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin is shot down at the end of a huge political rally in the centre of Tel-Aviv. His killer apprehended at the scene turns out to be a 25-year-old Jewish observant. Investigation into this brutal murder reveals a dark and frightening world that made this tragic deed possible. A subculture of hate fuelled by hysterical rhetoric, paranoia and political intrigue. The extremist rabbis and militant Israeli settlers for whom peace meant betrayal. And the security agents who saw what was coming and failed to prevent it.
Amos Gitai’s masterful tribute to Israeli Prime Minister, Yitzhak Rabin, on the 20th anniversary of his assassination meticulously reconstructs the tragic event and seeks to identify the culprits.
"Twenty years have passed. /.../ But the men that made possible the killing of our prime minister are still around. In fact, some of them are now flirting with power. I am alarmed by the growing existence of a violent Jewish religious underground in the heart of Israeli secular society. /.../ In my mind Israel in its origins was a political endeavour, not a religious one, a political conclusion to a long history of suffering by the Jewish people." (Amos Gitai)
Amos Gitai
Born in 1950 in Haifa, where he studied architecture and technical studies and became involved in filmmaking. Gitai furthered his study of architecture at the Berkeley University in California. He made numerous documentaries for the Israeli television, two of which were censored. Clashing swords with the censors, Gitai moved to Paris in 1982, and explored the issues of immigrants, exiles and history. He returned to his homeland in 1994.
filmography (selection)
1980 Bayit (The House)
1982 Yoman Sadeh (Field Diary)
1989 Berlin-Yerushalaim
1991 Golem, l'esprit de l'exil
1995 Zihron Devarim
1996 Zirat Ha'Rezach (The Arena of Murder)
1996 Milim (Words)
1997 Tapuz (Orange)
1998 Yom Yom
1999 Kadosh
2002 11'09''01 – September 11 (11. september)
2004 Promised Land
2015 Rabin, the Last Day