Film About Yitzhak Rabin’s Assassin Takes Israel’s Top Prize
JTA — A film about the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin as seen through the eyes of his murderer won Israel’s Ophir Award for Best Picture and will be the county’s nomination for an Oscar.
“Incitement” won Israel’s top prize on Sunday night at the Ophir Awards of the Israel Academy of Film and Television at the Cultural Center in Kfar Saba.
The Best Picture winner at the Ophirs becomes Israel’s submission to the Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language film, which has been renamed for 2020 to Best International Feature Film.
The film, directed by Yaron Zilberman, tells the story of Rabin’s assassination in 1995 through the eyes of his assassin, Yigal Amir.
Culture Minister Miri Regev slammed the award. “Yigal Amir is a murderer who shot a bullet into the heart of the nation and did the worst thing possible, kill a prime minister in a democracy,” Regev said in a statement. “There is no place for a film that tries to understand him or his motivations, or to hint or accuse others of being behind his heinous act.”
She also criticized the film for its portrayal of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as part of the incitement campaign. Netanyahu, who was head of the opposition at the time of the murder, has been accused of using hateful rhetoric and preventing such rhetoric against Rabin in the run-up to the assassination.
The film was released in Israel on Thursday, though it was screened at recent international film festivals.
The shortlist for the Oscar will be released in December, with nominations announced on January 13.
The post Film about Yitzhak Rabin’s assassin takes Israel’s top prize appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30