Screened as part of NZIFF 2014

The Green Prince 2014

Directed by Nadav Schirman

The incredible story of Mosab Hassan Yousef – the son of one of the founders of Hamas who became an informant for the Israeli secret service – is staged almost like an espionage thriller in this taut Sundance-winning doco.

Germany / Israel In English with English subtitles
105 minutes DCP

Director, Screenplay

Producers

Nadav Schirman
,
John Battsek
,
Simon Chinn

Photography

Hans Fromm
,
Giora Bejach
,
Raz Degan

Editors

Joelle Alexis
,
Sanjeev Hathiramani

Music

Max Richter

With

Mosab Hassan Yousef
,
Gonen Ben Yitzhak

Festivals

Sundance 2014

Awards

Audience Award (World Cinema Documentary)
,
Sundance Film Festival 2014

Elsewhere

“Nadav Schirman’s terrific double-dealing documentary tells the story of Mosab Yousef, the cherished son of Palestinian firebrand and Hamas co-founder Sheikh Hassan Yousef, who agrees to spy on his father for the Israeli secret service. Mosab insists that he is motivated by disillusion with Hamas, and by a desire to bring peace to the region, although it is clear that he’s also excited by the subterfuge. The deeper he goes the more his loyalties become tangled. He becomes the link between Hamas and Shin Bet, playing both sides off against one another; by turns hapless marionette and would-be puppeteer... Schirman’s film (produced by the team behind Man on Wire and Searching for Sugar Man) is as gripping as any high-concept Hollywood thriller and as psychologically knotty as Greek tragedy. The Green Prince (named after Mosab’s Israeli codename) juggles archive footage with elegant reconstructions, while clearing centre stage for the engrossing testimonials from both Mosab and wily Gonen Ben Yitzhak, his Israeli handler.” — Xan Brooks, The Guardian