Erez Laufer's RABIN IN HIS OWN WORDS gives us exactly that -- with excellent visuals, too

This seems to be the year of Yitzhak Rabin, movie-wise, at least, as we now have two fine films that feature this hero of Israel and that country's public figure most dedicated to seeking a lasting peace among Israel and its neighbors: Amos Gitai's combo doc/narrative, Rabin: The Last Day, and now Erez Laufer's more personal documentary, RABIN IN HIS OWN WORDS. Do we really get this man's actual words over an entire movie? Absolutely -- along with accompanying and mostly quite appropriate visuals.

Rabin was a highly intelligent man, a gifted writer given to a lot of personal musings, and so we have a collection of letters, speeches, and other recorded history in which we hear him and are made conscious of his ideas and beliefs on a range of subjects. Filmmaker Laufer, shown at left, has done a commendable job of weaving all this together in a time line that goes from Rabin's early family history through his service in the military, his courtship and marriage, his two rounds as the country's Prime Minister and his eventual assassination -- which Laufer does no more than mention. (We get plenty of 'the end' from Gitai's film.)

The manner in which the movie-maker presents all this, however, gives us the most complete picture I've yet seen of Rabin and his dedication and importance to his country. Yes, the film is pro-Rabin, as I think any intelligent and humane viewer today would also be. But the beauty of the documentary lies in how it enfolds us in the personality, psychology and humanity of its subject.

The film is full of so many specifics of the leader's life -- from how he and his father were placed in a detention camp by the British to the manner in which he handled the would-be "scandal" about his wife having a bank account here in the U.S. (after the time in which Rabin served as Ambassador to the U.S.).  Along the way we see the early Moshe Dayan (without eye patch), learn of the death of Rabin's stern but much loved mother, and discover how this military commander felt about having, at the time of Israel's problematic birth, to send 15- and 16-year-old boys off to fight. There is even a moving love letter to his wife, Leah, after 24 years of marriage. And -- oh, yes -- this guy was quite a smoker, too.

Watching the film is very like reliving an enormous amount of history-making moments from the past half-century (many of them involving, gosh, Yasser Arafat). Rabin's take on America's involvement in Vietnam is short and priceless, and his opposition to the Israeli "settlements" (he explains that ensuring the safety of some of these settlement families could cost as much as $250,000 each) makes sense from perspectives both moral and practical.

This is an eye-opening, sometimes amusing, finally very moving tribute to an Israeli who did all he could toward hastening peace. As we hear him say at one point, "I have no doubt that the risks of peace are a thousand times preferable to the bitter certainty of war." Would that current Israeli leaders shared that view.

Rabin in His Own Words -- a gift from Menemsha Films and running 100 minutes -- opens this Friday, May 6, in New York City at the Lincoln Plaza Cinema, in Los Angeles at Laemmle's Royal, and here in South Florida at five locations: in Boca Raton at the Living Room Theaters, in Delray Beach at the Movies of Delray, in Lake Worth at the Movies of Lake Worth, and in Tamarac at The Last Picture Show. In the weeks and month to come, I hope the documentary will find its way to other cities across country. You can click here and scroll down to follow any further scheduled playdates. 

Woooo-eeee! Let's hear it for Israel -- as the Keshales/Papushado BIG BAD WOLVES opens...

Hey, Quentin Tarantino thinks it's the Best Film of the Year. (That'll send some cinephiles, particularly those who love uber-violence, to the theater.) But I wonder what the Israeli powers-that-be, cultural and otherwise, have to say about the new movie BIG BAD WOLVES, which, of all the films to come out of Israel that I have so far seen, including Rabies (Kalevet), paints by far the nastiest picture of the place. Granted, this is a genre movie, of the type which, if we are to believe the very good article by John Anderson that appeared in the The New York Times of January 10, those cultural/political powers-that-be would prefer not be made by talented Israeli filmmakers.

As much as I found Big Bad Wolves to be mostly a crock of ugly and very smelly faux shit, the men who made it are without doubt quite talented. The film-making team here is comprised of Aharon Keshales and Navot Papushado (shown above, with Mr. Papushado on the right), who also gave us the crazily enjoyable, if awfully bloody, 2009 Rabies. Their new one is so much more accomplished in most ways that I am guessing their budget may have doubled (or better).

The film's opening, which offers in gorgeous slo-mo three kids playing hide-and-seek, in which the camera covers so much so beautifully that when, soon after, we see a pair of shoes emptied of their owner, our heart skips a beat. What happens to the little girl who was wearing these we see only sidelong, in bits and pieces, but it's horrible enough. Soon after we're treated to a point-by-point, blow by blow description of her torture, mutilation and demise. This isn't simply strong stuff: Because Big Bad Wolves is, first and foremost, an entertainment, it is also disgusting stuff. You'll want to stop the film to bathe or maybe wash the filmmakers' mouths out with soap, or their eyes with acid.

Well, hey, this sort of torture/mutilation/murder of children does go on. Even, I expect, in Israel. Further, Big Bad Wolves, turns out to be a (very) black comedy of sorts. Really. Occasionally, you'll imagine it's the blackest you've seen. And, yes, I did guffaw a few times. The give-and-take between the fellow with the shovel, above, and his mother is choice indeed, as is what happens to and with a certain birthday cake.

After this beginning, the movie is mostly then devoted to the capture and torture of a young man (Rotem Keinan, above) whom someone sort of suspects of doing this horrible deed, without -- from what I could tell -- having more than the very slightest circumstantial evidence with which to convict him. Involved in all this is a policeman (the fine Lior Ashkenazi, below, right) and his underlings; his boss (Menashe Noy, below, left); the father of the child victim (himself a former military man) played by Tzahi Grad, two photos above and in the penultimate one; and finally the father's own father. All the men in the movie turn out to be thugs of one sort or another (hence the title) -- except perhaps for our poor, put-upon victim, who teaches in a religious school (oh, yes: and an Arab who rides by on a horse from time to time).

Though it makes more sense on the surface than did Rabies, the movie has some rather gaping holes. Israeli cities have always struck me as rather heavily inhabited places, yet Big Bad Wolves exists in the kind of movie la-la-land in which a man can be chased in broad daylight down a perfectly respectable middle-to-upper-class street, then tasered and dragged back a block or two to a car and then kidnapped -- with absolute-ly nobody around to notice any of this. Yet, earlier, when the police are illegally interrogating their suspect in what is supposedly a totally deserted and abandoned building (below), all this is conveniently videotaped by a school-kid and then streamed out to YouTube-style to Israel and the world. (I can understand and sympathize with budgetary restrictions, but surely someone could have sprung for a few extras now and then, not to mention a little more logic?!)

If you can buy into crap like the above, then I am guessing that you'll buy most anything in order to get your rocks off via some super violence. Along the way the movie says a mouthful, if is to be believed, about the grossly incompetent Israeli police force and the mindset of the military. And while it is difficult not to see these scarily macho males and what they do as mirroring what Israel is doing to its in-state, Arab neighbors (and has been ever since the new state was first created), we'd best not go there. (After all, those god-damned Arabs have plenty to answer for, too!) In any case, this film can be viewed from all sorts of aspects -- social, political, or Dada-esque.

While I will not give even a hint as to what happens in the end, I will say this: Because the filmmakers clearly want to make this the darkest of dark comedy/horror/torture films (it really does achieve the level of torture porn, by the way), I simply suggest that, before it's all over, you try to imagine the very darkest outcome that you can. Depending on your own capacity for ugliness, you'll either be near correct or right-on.

Big Bad Wolves, from Magnet Releasing and running a too-long 110 minutes, opens today in New York City at the Cinema Village and the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center. Simultanesouly it will open in Chicago at the Music Box, and across Canada in Ottawa, Toronto and Victoria. In the weeks to come, look for it to open in another 20 cities (click here to see all playdates) across the USA, though oddly enough I don't see Los Angeles or Hollywood listed among them. I wonder why?

The photos of the two filmmakers, second from top, 

is by Rina Castelnuovo and comes courtesy 

of the The New York Times

Eytan Fox's YOSSI opens, picking up a decade later from his Yossi & Jagger

Remember Yossi & Jagger? That sweet, short, sad Israeli movie of a decade ago told the tale of two young men in the Israeli army who fall in love and con-summate their love, briefly, before one of them is killed. Ten years later, the film's director Eytan Fox (shown below) -- who's gone on to make two other good films (Walk on Water and The Bubble) -- comes back to his earlier creation, this time written by Itay Segal (the earlier film's screenplay was by Avner Bernheimer). The result, YOSSI, is in some ways his best work.

In earlier films, Fox has tried (with surprising success, it must be said) to pack in a ton of ideas, events, situations and characters. While this made the movies bracing and exciting, it also made maybe a little too much room for melodrama and coincidence. In this latest film, Fox sticks most heavily to character, placing it above even situation, thus letting the man Yossi -- and the wonderful actor who plays him, Ohad Knoller (shown below) -- nail the movie. And nail it Knoller does.

On screen at almost every moment, and certainly in every scene, this Teddy Bear of a man is so constrained by his "closeted" self that he has trouble connecting with what he most desires. This gives Yossi, the man and the movie, enormous feeling, irony and weight (yes, our guy is a little chubby, but only to the point that he makes for a really good, soft cuddle).

The movie starts out as a character study (and pretty much stays there), as our Yossi, now a successful physician, tries a little internet dating but comes up against the reality of a funny, nasty and jolting "gentleman" (below) who gives our hero a dose of unpleasant reality.

Along the way Fox morphs his movie into a kind of road trip during which Yossi is tested by himself and by others as he slowly, finally comes out of his shell. Just a bit. The filmmaker is happy not to tie up every loose end, and so, while we can imagine we've got a "happy ending," a moment or two later, we realize that this is just the beginning of what might or might not be, down the road, some kind of major change.

The film is full of smart touches and excellent performances -- espe-cially from Israeli star Lior Ashkenazi (shown above, left), as a physician friend of Yossi, super macho, who treats the hospital's beverage machine like your typical Palestinian -- "All they understand is force!" -- while he whomps said machine into giving up a can of soda.

There's a strange, wonderful and fraught scene between Yossi and the parents of the late Jagger, and some smart funny interplay between our hero and a quartet of army boys (above) to whom he gives a lift in his car. One of them, Tom (the sweet and hot Oz Zehavi, shown below, right), will take a liking to Yossi, turning the remainder of the film into a charming, low-key "will she or won't she?" scenario, with the she now a he.

As I say, because filmmaker Fox chooses character and moment above the large themes and plot devices of his last two films, Yossi succeeds mightily in its miniature manner. The movie, from Strand Releasing and running 84 minutes, opens this Friday, January 25, in New York City at the Angelika Film Center and the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center and in the Los Angeles area on February 8 at Laemmle's Town Center 5 and Playhouse 7.

Eran Riklis' HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGER: Women are the key to Israel's Oscar entry

When TrustMovies interviewed Israeli filmmaker Eran Riklis upon the NYC theatrical opening of his last film, Lemon Tree, in April of 2009 (that interview is here), the writer/director (shown below) told us about his next project, a film he was to direct based on a screenplay he had recently read and loved called The Mission of the Human Resources Manager (from the novel of the same name). That filmed version, complete with an appropriately shortened title, made its New York debut as part of this year's New York Jewish Film Festival earlier this year and has been picked by the distributor Film Movement, which will open the movie on Friday. This is good news all around because Riklis' latest is, I think, his best film so far: serious, smart, occasionally funny, thought-provoking and finally extremely moving without any over-wrought tear-jerking. That it was Israel's selection to represent that county is our Best Foreign Language Film "Oscar" derby was a wise choice -- even though the Academy completely overlooked it.

THE HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGER begins in media res as the titlular character at a large Israeli industrial-strength bakery is given the assignment to head off a very bad newspaper article about that bakery and one of the foreign workers in its employ. (Evidently, in Israel, human resources sometimes does double duty as PR flack.) Viewers are promptly put smack in the middle of this manager's life, as he scrambles first to learn what exactly has transpired, and then find out why and how before he can begin to do anything about it. A journalist ready to pounce on bad corporate behavior has his recorder, camera and steel-trap mind turned on, to better crucify the company and its flack.

Playing the manager, in a very private performance that only slowly lets the humanity of the character leak into view, Mark Ivanir (above, right, last seen here playing Jesse Eisenberg's dad in Holy Rollers) is terrific -- quick on his feet and with his brain, but coming up against things he finds enormously difficult to handle. The employee in question was a woman (above, left), and women are key in this movie: from the manager's boss, with whom he may have (or have had) more than a working relationship, to his estranged wife and the daughter he loves so much and who mirrors somewhat that foreign employee, to whom he becomes a kind of after-the-fact father. Even the employee's own mother (below, shown in foreground, right) rattles this movie's cage rather fiercely.

This is Israel, so yes, terrorism rears its head by starting off the action. Yet like so much else in the film, it acts only obliquely in this tale that is about "home" and "borders." The biggest theme here is probably "family," but in a much broader sense than our own nuclear version: the family of Jewish culture/religion, of the workplace and of the world at large.

In the course of the movie we travel with the manager from his own country to another (where, again, the women exert surprising force), and what we see and learn is heartbreaking and enriching. By the end of this relatively short film (103 minutes), our hero has changed in a surprisingly believable manner. And if we, being spectators rather than participants, have not quite done the same, the film has nonetheless set us to considering a world beyond our own in a way that we would not have imagined when we first sat down in our seat to watch.

Film Movement is giving The Human Resources Manager one of the larger theatrical send-offs in the company's history, which the movie fully deserves. Opening in some 24 cities over the course of March, April and May, in New York City, you can see it at the Lincoln Plaza Cinema and the Landmark Sunshine, starting Friday, March 4.  To see all the venues (theaters, dates and cities) across the country, simply click here.

All photos are from the film itself, except that of Mr. Riklis, top,

which was found on the web, credited to Jesús Uriarte.

ANTON CHEKHOV'S THE DUEL, from Dover Kosashvili, opens at Film Forum

Back in the spring of 2002, a film from USSR-born Israeli writer/director Dover Kosashvili opened in New York City. Late Marriage (Hatuna Meuheret) -- an enormously sexual, smart and angry broadside against Israeli fundamen-
talism, knocked the socks off a lot of us -- though it may have appeared that its strong and sexy leading man Lior Askenazi (Walk on Water) was the linchpin many of us remembered most. For his part, Mr. Kosashvili went on to make Matana MiShamayim (English title: Gift from Above) in 2003, which, though nominated for eleven Israeli Film Academy awards, was not much seen outside its home country.

Now comes this director's ANTON CHEKHOV'S THE DUEL (with a screenplay by the film's co-producer Mary Bing), an English-language adaptation of the Russian master's novella.  Cast with some lesser-known but top-flight U.K.talent, the movie takes place in the Caucuses (for which Croatia proves a sumptuous stand-in) and details the plight of a young aristocrat (Laevsky, whose behavior and attitude define the term ne're-do-well), his lively and attractive mistress (Nadya, toward whom he is feeling less and less kindly disposed), a highly intelligent and somewhat condescending scientist (Von Koren, who has taken an intense dislike to Laevsky) plus other other assorted friends and neighbors.

Once you get past their accents, this cast struck me as doing the best job I have yet seen of Irish, Brits and Scots playing Chekhov's Russians.  Each actor manages to capture, via languid gesture and subtle intonation, that peculiar combination of bored entitlement and barely perceptible unease that likely attends a time in which enormous political/social/economic change is developing.   I would guess, as well, that Mr. Kosashvili is more than a little proficient in the English language because his cast nails every moment, large and small, so expertly that he had to have been able to coach them -- as talented as they may be -- regarding what he wanted from at least some of those moments.  

Andrew Scott (shown at right in the two photos above), as the little twat Laevsky, will have you wanting to throttle him in no time. This actor's spectacular talent at finding innumerable ways to be insufferably annoying (until -- and this is Chekhov's great gift for rich, humane characterization -- you actually begin to love him for it) is something to see -- as is his bizarre nervous breakdown over a chess board.  Tobias Menzies (shown below) as Von Koren, brings both sturdiness and stud-liness to his role, his jealousy for Laevsky's station and what the man gets away with kept barely, but quite handsomely, in check.  Fiona Glasgott (shown at left in the two photos above, and also at bottom) turns Nadya into a whirlwind of contradiction: loving, needy, highly sexual, and finally more vulnerable than either we or she suspects.  In the supporting cast, Niall Buggy makes a sensible, kindly doctor, while Michelle Fairley captures both the imperiousness and fear of an important lady of the town, who, in one of the movie's strongest scenes, gives Nadya a sudden and nasty ultimatum.

As is often the case in Chekhov, characters talk at, rather than to, one another -- with the expected consequences.  Indirection is the order of the day, and when something goes wrong, well... blame the servants.  If sexuality is closer to the surface here than in Anton's turn-of-the-century time, what we see is still light years away from the usual panting and glossy nudity we're used to observing on film.  The many details we catch along the way -- from the serving of soup to some flirting and bargaining in a millinery shop -- are captured succinctly, and the location cinematography should have travel agents booking Croatia (see below) like crazy.

The friend who accompanied me to the screening, having just read the novella upon which the film is based, felt that screenplay did not work very well. Not having read the novella myself, I can only say that the film held me rapt from scene one.  By its melancholy finale, I also felt that real change, as well as some growth, had occurred for our onscreen friends.  And Mr. Kosashvili, I think, is slowly amassing quite a resume.

Anton Chekhov's The Duel opens for a two-week run this Wednesday, April 28, at Film Forum in New York City.

The Drors' FOR MY FATHER gets a well-deserved theatrical run

When TrustMovies first covered the Israeli film FOR MY FATHER (Sof Shavua B'Tel Aviv), a well nigh irresis-
tible melodrama from director Dror Zahavi (shown below) & co-writers Idor & Jonatan Dror,  that made its NYC debut as part of the Israeli Film Festival in early December 2009, he was blown away by the movie.  That the film deals with Palestinian terror-
ists planning a bombing would seem to make his reaction appro-
priate, yet For My Father is so full of life -- so rich, moving, humane and even sometimes funny -- that the tears shed, chills felt and laughter experienced all seem utterly on the mark.

Although For My Father had been picked up by Film Movement for U.S. DVD distribution at the time of its festival debut, no theatrical release was planned.  Things change, fortunately, and now here it is opening in New York City at the Quad Cinemas this coming Friday, January 29.  The film eminently deserves theatrical play: On its home ground it was nominated for seven Israeli film awards, while winning two more from international festivals. The Film Movement box art quotes Eric Alterman at The Huffington Post, who calls the movie "transcendent."   Indeed it is.  And indeed it has a lot to transcend.

A film to which the cliche "Romeo and Juliet story" most definitely applies, For My Father is manipulative as all get-out, yet once its situation is in place, so deftly and realistically do the director and writers work everything out, and so beautifully performed is the film by its entire cast, that it simply takes off into the stratosphere, leaving you moved and chastened to an almost unbearable degree.

The filmmakers set up a conundrum which both the characters and us viewers first try to work out and then would be happy simply to escape from. And because the performers, particularly the two leads (Shredi Jabarin, shown above, and Hili Yalon, shown below), are so beautiful & persuasive, they win us over completely, as do the supporting actors (several are shown two photos below) -- each well cast and delivering an utterly lived-in performance.


So much of Israeli and Palestinian life -- from the workaday world to family, friends, religion and even soccer -- is encompassed by this movie that you come away from it enriched on many levels, even as you've been held fast by its simple and riveting plotting.  The use of soccer is especially telling and ironic, never more so than in its final and all-too-meaningful shot.

Though the set-up may manipulate, For My Father's follow-through plays absolutely fair from a just, ethical and honest standpoint. That this movie honors its situation and its characters -- Israeli and Palestinian -- so well may be its strongest point. I absolutely and unequivocably recommend it.

THE SHAKSHUKA SYSTEM and Israel's co- opted government: Q&A with filmmakers

Watching THE SHAKSHUKA SYSTEM, the excellent new documentary from director Ilan Aboody and investigative journalist Miki Rosenthal (above, right) should whisk many Americans back to the early days of the Bush-Cheney regime and the now-famous "closed" meeting between the "government" and our titans of energy (the records of which are still hidden, so far as I know). Further, it may put some of you in mind of today's Italy, where the Berlusconi government appears to be colluding with organized crime, politicians and corporations in the dumping of toxic waste that is destroying land, water and people in its wake.

Whatever you might think of Israel as a state via-a-vis the Palestinians, I believe you will be surprised at the amount of graft, corruption, hypocrisy and greed on display in this ground-breaking documentary. According to Mr. Rosenthal (see interview below), the Palestinian question does not run safely along official party lines so far as money and power is concerned. Evidently, you can be sleazy and remain liberal/left wing. (Are we shocked?) Not only do Misters Abbody (shown below, with the film's editor Martha Wieseltier) and Rosenthal point fingers and name names, they back it all up with public records, interviews, facts, figures and just about everything else you might want a good investigative reporter to come up with. When government official after government official has promised never to do anything as venal and unethical as to be hired, post-service, by the very people to whom they've given away the store, Rosenthal has even managed to get one of these creeps on records with that promise -- which he promptly breaks.

Lest you imagine that TrustMovies is some sort of storage facility for Israeli history, politics, gossip and the like, let me assure you that prior to viewing this documentary, about the only thing I knew about Israeli politics was that "Bibi" Netanyahu is back again as Prime Minister. I knew nothing about Ofer family nor of the Israel Corporation. Yet so thorough and precise are the filmmakers about what they tell you and how they tell it that any intelligent viewer will be able to follow along and be properly, dismally amazed at the sleaze on display here.

The pair has come up with the visual notion of a Monopoly-like board game which they use to explain everything from characters involved to deals struck. They pepper their film with history, official records, interviews (or at least the game attempt to interview) and current news -- all of which keeps viewers on top of things. By the end of the 90-minute movie, you won't have to be an Israeli citizen to be angry as hell about what you've seen. What makes the movie so enjoyable are the bits of humor along the way (Miki's family, telling him what they think of his endeavors and the utter transparency of some of the bad guys' methods, not to mention their retorts) and the sheer number of scams and dirty deals that have taken place, up to and including the area of the country -- I think it was Haifa -- where pollution and toxicity are so bad that new cancer victims keep appearing with alarming regularity.

We see the beginning of the "power" families trying to suppress this documentary (one buys the TV channel Rosenthal works for, and the reporter is suddenly out of a job) that finally rose into full-blown law suits and a national scandal that created in the public a growing desire to see this film. They did -- despite a "competing" movie produced by the big boys but given a thumbs-down by the public, once it had seen both films. That The Shakshuka System was conceived and made is stirring enough. That it has caused such an uproar and may, eventually, do some small good in making Israeli politics more transparent and honest -- oops, my naiveté is showing! -- is at least worth a couple (of hundred) cheers.

The Shakshuka System is screening tomorrow, Sunday December 6, as part of the Israel Film Festival at the SVA Theater 2 @ 10:15pm, and again next Sunday December 13, to close the festival, at the SVA Theater 2, at 7:15.

******

TrustMovies (in New York City) talks to Miki Rosenthal (in Israel) via Skype, a low-to-no-cost computer phone line with a --sometimes-- good connection.

TrustMovies: At the end of the film we see that it has not been shown yet in Israel, so what has happened between that time and now?

Miki Rosenthal: What happened was that we started the investigation in 2004, then started filming in 2005 and finished in 2008. We had an agreement to show the film with a satellite company. After a lot of pressure from the Ofer family, the contract was canceled. For 1-1/2 years, I tried to to screen it it on the public channel, Channel 1. I couldn't get a final agreement until I understood that they wanted to screen our documentary only after the Ofers' own film (which the family had made to counteract ours) was ready to screen against us. Finally, they were screened together, one after the other. The Ofers did not come to the studios but instead sent one of their executives. Everything is on YouTube, but it is all in Hebrew. You can see us shouting at each other but unless you understand Hebrew you won't get it.

It became quite an event, with lots of talking about it. Meantime, the Ofers sued me in the courts and gave me a lot of trouble. They tried to, anyway. Now, from standpoint of time, all their objections to my movie and trying to keep it off the air and off screens has only made our movie more effective. Their trying to to stop the film only made it more popular.

Like when the Catholic Church used to ban something over here, it grew even more popular.

People became curious. What it is the family so afraid of? This all made the movie a must-see. I went with the movie to more than 150 theaters by myself and talked about it. Tens of thousand of people saw it even before it was even on TV.

Did everybody watch it, once it aired?

No, because our public TV channel isn't that popular. But it still managed to get a 12 ½ point rating, rather than the 2 points that channel usually has.

OK: What I am wondering now is: How are YOU doing? Do you have a job again?

Look, I was a freelancer. Doing all my movies, and programs for myself. I was connected with Channel 2. Everything I make, they have the right of first refusal. But when I made this movie, they told me, You’re a nice guy but we don't want to work with you anymore. So I am not working with them anymore, and they are most popular channel in Israel.

But I do manage. I'm still doing shows and other movies. And hoping things will be all right. Of course, I was damaged.

Did the popularity of the move lead to any good changes in the country?

It is too close in time to actually know. I can say a few things: Any radical change will only be seen in a few years. But now, in the Israeli press, when someone wants to say things are going wrong or are corrupted, they use the word Shakshuka because of the film. This is of course means that at least the terminology was effective. In other cases, the Ofer brother themselves, when they give an interview to the press, they say that because of the film, the officials are afraid to meet them and the Israeli government does not give them money because it is afraid to be seen as colluding with them. But there is no radical change yet. Israel is still one of the most corrupt countries in the world, according to the -- (TrustMovies goofed and did not get Miki's next few words...)

Is your family speaking to you?

Yes. My family loves me very much They worry about me and what can happen to me. In most of my articles, movies, investigations, I deal with very powerful people – all criminals. What makes me crazy is that people who are in the government will go to work with the Ofers after they leave their government post.

Do you ever worry for your own safety?

I cannot. If I would, I won't be able to do my job.

Are you married? Any children?

Sure, sure. My wife is in the movie for 20 seconds, saying "I hate your film, you will never beat the system." My son, whom I am arguing with in the film, he is telling me, "Maybe you are right, but why should you do it. I have three sons who are love me and care for me and want the best for us.... (He pauses) I am a meshiga – a kind of idiot -- but a nice one.

Your film does not go into Israel/Palestinian politics nor the U.S.A. Israel “lobby.” Nor does it need to, but I am wondering if these same people are actively/rabidly anti-Palestinian and pro the USA Israel lobby? That would make sense to me, at least in terms of how things work in America regarding money, power and politics.

No. There is no connection there. This Israel is a strange country. We have a free market, but the government is very weak, if you compare it to the rich people. We have 20 families in Israel who own 45% of Israel’s capital. Not only do they own the biggest business, they also own most of the newspapers and TV stations and key factories, and the energy suppliers. They are much stronger than the Israeli government. Maybe they do have connections with the Israel/Palestine thing or the US lobby, but this is not what they care about. They just want to make money. Most of the people want peace -- most of them are what you would call left-wing -- because peace is always good for the economy. For instance, Sammy Ofer's son Idan is left-wing regarding the Palestinian issue but not the economic issues.

I really LOVED this movie. Knowing absolutely nothing about Israeli politics, short of who’s the Prime Minister, I was still able to follow things surprisingly easily. This seems to me a model documentary – and you a model investigative journalist: smart, savvy, dogged and willing to put yourself on the line over and over again. While you and Michael Moore have a lot in common -- but please don’t you gain any more weight! (Miki laughs) -- I prefer watching you because you don’t try to be funny all the time and seem more willing to take a “back seat” to that of your subjects. I think Mr. Moore could really take lessons from you.

Well.. Thank you.

What was the Ofer’s animated film like?

They copied our concept in everything! One lawyer even suggested that I sue them! But I don’t have the money.

Did it get a lot of public approval?

There was a poll taken by a radio station asking who was more convincing: Miki's film or the Ofers'? The respondents answered with 90% of people believing our film, and only 10% believed them. There is not really any question: People know the situation.

Maybe the difference was there is a journalist who had the guts to say and do something.

Most of our journalists are working for those families. They are afraid to say something. I myself was working for commercial papers and TV, and for a long time I didn’t have.... I worked there until I was not able to look in the mirror anymore. I couldn't do that things they asked me to do. I understand why people don’t rise up: They have families. We don’t have a lot media here in Israel: Three channels of TV and four or five daily newspapers, so people are afraid to fight.

Maybe the fact that you did this -- you made the film and got it shown and people agreed with it. Maybe this will inspire other people!

I say that we as a people in the modern world are becoming more and more like customers – they do what is good for them. But we are people -- not just customers. And we need to do what is good for us from time to time.

Look. Israel has wars all the time and we are fighting with other people. But we also have enemies inside our society, and we need to fight them, too. From time to time it is dangerous to fight with them. But we must do it if we believe it is just.

A few days later we had another conversation -- much shorter and with a very poor Skype connection -- with the film's director Ilan Aboody.

TrustMovies: Where did the idea for the Monopoly board and figures come from? That works so well in terms of both humor and explanation.

Ilan Abbody: Basically, I had the idea to do the film with just the camera and Miki, using and animation and visuals. I knew I had to find a good idea fo the animation, to arrange all the stories together. Monopoly was really the most banal idea in a way, and it came from a friend of mine -- who is not even in the film.

How was it to put the film together. Was it all in the editing?

The first thing we did was the research. Then I wrote a script with all the ideas and everything we wanted to do. The only things not in there were things like the wedding – which we did not know was going to happen. The finished movie is quite similar to the script, but the editing was the hard part. The idea was ambitious, to take all these stories about money and finance and put them together. And our first draft of the movie went on for 3-1/2 hours; each part was understandable in itself, but together it was all too much! So we took out some stories and made other stories much more simple.

We have not shown the film yet outside of Israel but within Israel it was a very big success. It made a lot of fuss, and the families really tried to block the film. They just took it too personally. Some of the PR people told them not to sue -- to be quiet and it will pass. But they just could not do that.

Which turned out to be a good thing for your film! Well, for me -- who am definitely "outside" of Israel, the movie worked very, very well. I believe I could understand everything that was going on and why it was important that this be stopped. I just want to congratulate you on making something so full of details and names and events that was so easy to follow and understand. You've done a terrific job here.

I am very happy about what you say because the basic idea about the film -- money and power and the economy -- this is something that touches everybody. But nobody really knows about all that except those who follow closely the economy. We wanted to make a film that anybody can see and understand. And so what you say about the film gives me hope that people all around can see it and understand it.

All photos about, except those of Miki and Ilan,
are from the film, most of which are only of animation
and various papers or photos, rather than photos
of the "perps" themselves -- probably because
the filmmakers would prefer no more lawsuits....