RABIN THE LAST DAY

On 4 November 1995, the Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin was shot dead. “Rabin, the Last Day” (2015) by the Israeli Amos Gitai does not begin with the shot, but with what preceded and followed it: with the Shamgar Commission, before which security personnel and officials deny responsibility; with the circles of rabbis and settlers in which the assassin Yigal Amir found religious justification for the murder; with the rallies at which Rabin was depicted in an SS uniform and “Death to Rabin” was chanted. Rabin’s last day is told from many perspectives – driver, bodyguard, adviser, assassin and the prime minister himself, from morning until his death.

Amos Gitai of Israel interweaves archival material, amateur footage and news images with re-enacted scenes shot in cold light; Shimon Peres appears as himself. The thesis of the 153-minute docudrama: not a lone assassin but a political climate made the murder possible. It premiered in the Venice competition in 2015. The film was shown at Around the World in 14 Films in Berlin in 2016.

Shown at the 2016 edition of Around the World in 14 Films.

All films 2016 · Film Archive