The Bibi Files
Alexis Bloom’s painstaking, powerful documentary lifts the lid on the corruption charges filed against Benjamin Netanyahu.
Netanyahu
Image courtesy of Dogwoof Releasing.
The title which Alexis Bloom has chosen for her documentary is apt enough but it might have been even more to the point had it been called Bibi: The Case for the Prosecution. Significantly it is not a work from outsiders. The Bibi Files may be an American production but Bloom's father was a Jew and those seen in the film are Israelis with the journalist Raviv Drucker involved both as one of the producers and as a major on-screen collaborator. What all this means is that Bloom’s film is an impassioned criticism of Israel's prime minister by those of his countrymen who believe that his actions have become a threat to the secure future of Israel. This is a work by patriots who believe that for the good of Israel Netanyahu needs to be the subject of an exposé such as this.
Bloom’s film is very much in the style of Alex Gibney who is also involved here but only as a producer. A work such as Gibney's 2020 Totally Under Control which looks at how the USA handled the Covid pandemic is very much the pattern that is followed here: a painstaking look back which is detailed and thorough and covers ground which is not necessarily new but which when all put together creates a cumulative power that ultimately gives the piece real strength.
A key reason for the appearance of The Bibi Files lies in the fact that it is able to incorporate substantial leaked police video footage of their interrogations of Netanyahu and others undertaken as a result of the charges of bribery and fraud made against the prime minister in 2019, this being material that has not been seen before. Blended in with this is the footage shot for the film featuring a whole range of people well equipped to talk about Netanyahu. In addition to Drucker they include Professor Uzi Beller once a close friend who is aghast at what is happening now, Hadas Klein regarded as a key witness in the trial that would evolve and such notable figures as the former prime minister Ehud Olmert and the author and former foreign policy advisor Nimrod Novik.
While the main period under review here relates to the years after Netanyahu became prime minister in 1996 at the age of forty-six, the film also touches on his earlier life and on the impact caused by the death of his admired older brother Yoni who was killed at Entebbe in 1976 leaving Benjamin the crucial family member of his generation. The first half of the film blends its constituent elements to reveal the accusations that centred on Netanyahu and his wife Sara (his third in fact, they married in 1991) receiving enormous quantities of gifts be they cigars, champagne or jewellery from such people as the Hollywood producer Arnon Milchan. Not only were such gifts contrary to the law in Israel but questions also arose of favours given in return. We learn too of apparent aid given by Netanyahu to the tycoon Shaul Elovitch when he had financial problems after which Elovitch’s important news website, Walla, took on a notably pro-Netanyahu stance.
The latter stages of The Bibi Files bring us up to 2024 so that the events post 7th October 2023 become central. The horror of the Hamas attack is fully acknowledged but a survivor of it, Gill Schwartz, is critical of Netanyahu’s subsequent response to it and the film strongly suggests that the prime minister’s fear of being found guilty and imprisoned on corruption charges has led to his seeking to prolong the war in Gaza for as long as possible. No less pointed is the suggestion that ever since being re-elected against the odds in 2015 Netanyahu has come to see himself as a Caesar and in order to retain his status has accepted such extreme allies in government as Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir.
In this context it is intriguing to find it being indicated that Sara is a powerful influence on her husband and quite possibly somebody of whom he is afraid while his son Yair emerges as a figure whose attitude marks him out as more of a right-wing extremist than his father. But the film's greatest irony lies in the fact that the key witness it offers against Benjamin Netanyahu is Benjamin Netanyahu himself. Listen to him in the interrogations asserting that all the charges against him are ridiculous, that any supposed evidence against him is prejudiced and that again and again he has no recollection of incidents described (this from a man said to have great powers of memory) and his whole manner radiates that of a man who is guilty but in determined denial. For that matter he emerges as a virtual twin of another current political figure, a fact which only adds to the fascination of The Bibi Files.
MANSEL STIMPSON
Featuring Raviv Drucker, Nir Hefetz, Ehud Olmert, Ami Ayalon, Nimrod Novik, Avi Alcalay, Uzi Beller, Gill Schwartz, Sami Abu Shahadeh, Bashir Sadik Ma’Amar, Meni Neftali, Hadas Klein and footage of Benjamin Netanyahu.
Dir Alexis Bloom, Pro Alex Gibney, Alexis Bloom, Raviv Drucker, Kara Elverson and David Rahtz, Ph Avner Shahaf, Ed Andy Grieve, Halil Efrat and Graeme Butler, Music Will Bates.
Jigsaw Productions/Drucker & Goren Media-Dogwoof Releasing.
115 mins. USA. 2024. UK Rel: 13 December 2024. Cert. 15.
