2012 Directed by Dror Moreh
In an unprecedented and candid series of interviews, six former heads of the Shin Bet — Israel's intelligence and security agency — speak about their role in Israel's decades-long counterterrorism campaign, discussing their controversial methods and whether the ends ultimately justify the means. (TIFF)
看门人, Töte zuerst!
Politics and human rights War and historical adventure political, democracy, president, documentary or propaganda war, soldiers, combat, fought or military political, president, historical, politician or democracy nazi, war, wwii, hitler or jewish historical, epic, battle, historic or fought Show All…
I can't stop crying.
Though already long-diseased, my country finally died on November 4, 1995, and I don't think it's ever coming back.
Some may claim that beyond polished aesthetics and After Effects acrobatics, there isn't much in virtuosic cinematic expression to this doc, but this is something beyond cinema. This is a piercing cry for an end to the slow suicide of a society; it just uses the platform of cinema.
EVERYONE should watch this. Everyone.
Definitely one of the best documentaries I've seen. Relevant, poignant, riveting, and expertly-crafted. Not one to miss. I can't remember exactly what won the Oscar, but it probably should have been this.
2013 In Review - April
A documentary featuring interviews with all surviving former heads of Shin Bet, the Israeli security agency whose activities and membership are closely held state secrets.
Eye opening documentary about a subject I know very little about. Middle Eastern politics are complicated at the best of times, and this just throws you right in without much context.
Nominated for Best film in a foreign language 2013
(7/8 is "Very Good")
The Gatekeepers approaches the government-insider-documentary format (if it can be called a format) in the same way The Fog of War does - namely to try and focus the wisdom of its subjects into select lessons.
It's an approach that works extremely well, because no group is more capable of encapsulating Israeli defense than its defense heads.
The second thing it does extremely well is to give a balanced view in the face of the ongoing Israeli-Palestine conflict. These individuals' jobs are to defend Israel - that means killing Arab terrorists principally, but also innocent Arab civilians in the crossfire. The filmmaker probes the morality of their actions justly - both from a larger perspective of human rights and a smaller perspective of domestic security.
And the juggling of those two forces makes for an extremely interesting film.
42/100
Six former heads of Israel's counter-terrorism unit talk candidly (in separate interviews) about their profession, accompanied by archival footage. All very interesting, but only perhaps 6% more interesting than the transcript would be. I really just have no tolerance for conventional expository docs anymore.
A bunch of ex-Israeli secret anti-terrorist leaders taking (sensible) positions that would give them a harder path to Senate confirmation than Chuck Hagel's. Astonishing stuff. Review here: www.avclub.com/articles/the-gatekeepers,91783/
“We wanted security and got more terrorism.”
“When you retire, you become a bit of a leftist.”
Like The Fog of War and CitizenFour, I’m glad there are people out there collecting this kind of information and getting people like this to talk, but I don’t personally know what to do with the information. On top of that, as with PS Jerusalem, I don’t really understand the whole Israel thing enough to follow the finer points (I know, I’m terrible: but at some point a few years ago, after Nick Clegg, I opted for sanity over total political savvy) - so I end up watching it vaguely like, “okay, war is hell, politicians are stupid, terrorism is complicated… what’s new?”…
In Newcastle-Upon-Tyne there is a cinema called the Tyneside cinema, I hadn't been there for 3 years, but on my recent trip back I thought I would go check it out again as it is essentially my favourite cinema in the country. I had to be pretty specific with the times of the films so I wouldn't miss my train home, and the only film I could make is The Gatekeepers. On the one hand I realise that the film was Oscar nominated an has been garnering great reviews, on the other, did I really want to see a film about Israeli foreign policy from an Israeli standpoint? In the end I figured seeing it would be better than simply…
The story of Shin Bet, Israel's internal security agency, as told by its former heads from 1967 through today.
Engrossing documentary that sheds light into a previously largely unknown (and unseen) area of Middle East's turbulent history. The interviews are not only surprisingly candid, they are a real eye-opener for all those who prefer to see things in black and white when it comes to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The director and his interviewees are not afraid to speak not only about the successes of Shin Bet but also their failures and their frustrations with both the Israeli and Palestinian political leadership and the justice system.
The use of modern technology and previously classified documents in order to reenact some of…
I heard about this film a little while back, and although not being an expert in the slightest, I did think it would be an interesting film and something worth checking out.
The documentary film is made up of candid interviews with the last six heads of Shin Bet, the Israeli agency tasked with counter terrorism and state security.
The most surprising thing about the film is that all the former six heads, in one form or another, believe what they did while working for the agency was a fairly pointless exercise, in that the Israeli politicians failed to secure a long lasting peace treaty, whilst they did the dirty work of temporarily suppressing the terrorist activity. So much so,…
Owned this for a while but thankfully, BBC2 decided to force me into watching it by scheduling it on an evening where I wasn't busy. This is the sort of documentary that will enlighten you on the Israel approach to Gaza and how it deals with Hamas/Palestine. I can't claim to be massively well read on the subject so won't go into it but like all documentaries, if you support one side over the other, you'll probably a bias here.
For me, it was just fascinating to hear the anecdotes and approaches to perceived terrorism by a secret service, in this case Shin Bet. The film has a simple approach - six heads of Shin Bet since 1968 to 2011 explain events, feelings and the backgrounds of why they acted in the way they did. Add in some extremely gorgeous computer generated visuals and you have a five star film. Brilliant.
