By Andrea Tucci,
Already beset by a serious image problem at home and abroad, embattled Prime Minister Binyamin “Bibi” Netanyahu suffered a new blow to his international stature after a full-length documentary about him had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF).
“The Bibi Files,” a nearly two-hour film, includes never-before-seen leaked footage of Netanyahu that could reshape his image abroad and unveil sides previously kept under wraps.
The film is nothing else, said Oscar-winning producer Alex Gibney, that a representation of Netanyahu as a politician and as a person both by way of his own testimony and the words of others.
The Bibi Files reveals previously unseen, leaked interrogation footage of Netanyahu, who has been under investigation by Israeli authorities for eight years and is yet to stand trial.
Netanyahu was indicted on breach of trust, bribery, and fraud charges in 2019 all of which he has vehemently denied.
Netanyahu requested the court to ban the publication of the documentary. Netanyahu’s lawyer, Amit Hadad, argued that publishing the interrogations was illegal under Israeli law.
Directed by Alexis Bloom and produced by Gibney, “The Bibi Files” veers back and forth between two main period.
Photo: Director Alexis Bloom and the Producer Alex Gibney
The first, dating from 2016 to 2018 and derived from thousands of hours of footage, consists of police interrogations of Netanyahu, his wife Sara, their son Yair, various friends. The police made the recordings, seeking evidence to determine whether to indict him on corruption charges. Until now, the videos, which were leaked to Gibney hadn’t been seen publicly, including in Israel due to its privacy laws, which may preclude “The Bibi Files” ever being shown there.
The second comprises recent interviews with prominent Israeli figures, including former prime minister Ehud Olmert, former Shin Bet head Ami Ayalon and former Netanyahu adviser Nir Hefetz, and others much less known to the public but who once were connected to Netanyahu. Outside of the film festival and in the cinema itself, dozens of protesters rallied against Netanyahu’s prosecution of the ongoing war, with signs reading, “Bibi save the hostages, not yourself,” and, “Bibi, let my people go.”
Today, all describing him as a compulsive liar and immoral manipulator.
Asserted several times in the final of the film is how Netanyahu’s extreme fear of being convicted and going to jail drives his actions in doing whatever it takes to remain in power, prolonging the war in Gaza, regardless of its devastating impact on the country and massive loss of life among Palestinians and Israelis.
Bloom and Gibney are still working on editing “The Bibi Files” “The film is almost there,” referring to it as not quite finished. “I think we’ll carry on cutting it and refining it and perhaps even the ending may change because perhaps we want to end the film with, the call to arms for America to say something louder about Netanyahu…”.
Gibney is hoping the film’s presence at Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) will lead to finding distributors so it can be presented around the world, even if for legal reasons it can’t be officially shown in the country where it would command the most interest and debate, Israel.
However, Gibney says: The film would probably make its way to Israel one way or another…
Hopefully soon will show worldwide “The Bibi LIES…”
