Former leaders of Israel’s Shin Bet secret service agency talk frankly about terrorism, torture, war and Israeli-Palestinian conflict in this Oscar-nominated documentary. “Exemplary enterprise journalism.” — Wall St Journal
You’ll be arguing with your friends about the ethics of secrecy and defense for hours.
Screened as part of NZIFF 2013
The Gatekeepers 2012
Shomerei ha'saf
“The Gatekeepers has collected a shelf full of awards, and an Oscar nomination for Best Documentary, too. Every scroll and statue is deserved. The film, by seasoned cinematographer Dror Moreh, is a feat – of access and of passionate and appropriately unsettling political commentary. I don’t know how Moreh persuaded six former heads of Israel’s Shin Bet secret service agency to talk to him; these are tough men who have never spoken about their work before… But talk they do – calmly, authoritatively – about terrorism, torture, war, compromise, the relationships between Israelis and Palestinians, and, most depressingly, about the relationships among Israelis in a country being torn apart as much by citizens within as by enemies without. And what they have to say is unnerving, surprising, and vital.” — Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly
“It is hard to imagine a movie about the Middle East that could be more timely, more painfully urgent, more challenging to conventional wisdom on all sides of the conflict.” — A.O. Scott, NY Times