Anti-Netanyahu film banned in Israel screened in Canada

Movie’s producer claims it’s especially critical to screen movie trashing Netanyahu’s character during the Israel-Hamas war.

By World Israel News Staff

A movie featuring illegally obtained police interrogations of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on Monday evening.

Titled The Bibi Files, in a refence to the premier’s nickname, the movie contains footage of Netanyahu being questioned as part of a criminal graft investigation.

The film is banned from being shown in the Jewish State due to the use of the leaked interrogation footage, which is illegal under Israeli law.

Netanyahu filed a request with an Israeli court to order an injunction against the film being shown in Canada, as one of the film’s producers – Channel 13 journalist Ravid Drucker – is Israeli.

The premier’s attorneys argued that Drucker could be held responsible for the use of illegally obtained footage in the movie.

The court denied the request, but ordered Drucker to respond by Wednesday.

“That footage can’t be shown [in Israel],” said Alex Gibney, a producer of the movie, in a question-and-answer session after the screening.

“It’s a particular law in Israel, it doesn’t affect the rest of the world.”

In an interview with Variety earlier this year, Gibney said the footage, which depicts Netanyahu in a highly negative light, is critical in light of the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.

“There is a certain urgency in terms of reckoning with this material and reckoning with Netanyahu’s character at a time when we are being told, ‘Oh, these discussions are for another day because Netanyahu’s in the middle of a war,’” Gibney told the outlet.

Gibney then implied that Netanyahu may be dragging out the war for political reasons.

“We felt it was important, and frankly, our duty as world citizens to make our story known as soon as possible because people are dying every day,” he said.

The movie’s director, Alexis Bloom, said that legal considerations had forced her to replace one of the people depicted in the “documentary” with an actor.

“There’s a lot of legal issues involved in making a film like this, and there are legal issues that we can’t specify here involving the person who had to be portrayed by an actor,” she said.

The Bibi Files also contains footage of police interviews with Netanyahu’s wife Sara, his son Yair, as well as his close associates.

Much of the film consists of interviews with numerous political enemies of Netanyahu, who speak derisively about the premier and his character.