In one of the most explosive documentary premieres in TIFF history, a film sharply critical of Benjamin Netanyahu bowed before a packed house in Toronto Monday night, despite a last-ditch effort by the Israeli prime minister to block it.
The Bibi Files, produced by Alex Gibney and directed by Alexis Bloom, contains never-before-seen video of Netanyahu being interrogated by Israeli police on corruption allegations – an investigation that led to Netanyahu’s indictment in 2019. In footage leaked to Gibney late last year, Netanyahu is seen locking horns with interrogators, denying he improperly accepted expensive gifts from wealthy supporters, including Hollywood producer Arnon Milchan and Las Vegas casino magnate Sheldon Adelson. Video of police questioning of Milchan, Adelson, as well as Netanyahu’s wife Sara and eldest son Yair also was leaked to Gibney and is featured prominently in the documentary.
Earlier Monday, the Jerusalem District Court rejected an attempt by Netanyahu to yank the film from the TIFF lineup. The prime minister’s suit claimed investigative journalist Raviv Drucker, who appears in the film and is one of the documentary’s producers, violated Israeli law by leaking the video. But there is no evidence to suggest Drucker was behind the leak, and speaking after the premiere, Gibney made it clear he won’t identify the person who gave him the material. On that score, he would only say, “A source came to me and said, ‘I have some videotapes’ — the interrogation videos that you saw here — ‘and I think you’d be interested in them and perhaps you might make a film about them.’ And this was in late 2023. I got them. I looked at them, I was very impressed.” He said he then turned to Bloom, with whom he has collaborated on previous projects, to direct the film.
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In the video seen in the documentary, a tense Netanyahu sits rigidly behind a desk facing at least three interrogators. He frequently replies, “I don’t remember” to questions about whether he pressured pals to reward him with premium champagne and top-of-the-line cigars ($1,000 a box), and whether he knew his wife had received a $42,000 bejeweled bracelet as a gift from Milchan. (Later in the film, friends of Netanyahu remark on his prodigious memory for names and details, raising an implicit question about his honesty during the interrogation).
For the film, Bloom interviewed the journalist Drucker, as well as other prominent Israeli figures who oppose Netanyahu’s right-wing politics, along with former members of the prime minister’s household staff, and even a longtime friend-turned critic, who declares of Netanyahu, “He lies left and right.” These observers not only accuse Netanyahu of gross corruption, but they allege he pursued a highly controversial reform of Israel’s judiciary to escape justice himself. The film suggests massive public protests over the proposed judicial reform distracted Israel from its defense posture, leaving the country vulnerable to the brutal Hamas sneak attack of October 7th.
Several observers in the film claim Netanyahu has pursued a policy of “total victory” over Hamas in part to appease hard-right members of his cabinet, whose support he needs to keep his governing coalition together. Most devastating of all, the documentary suggests the prime minister has cynically forsaken hostages still held by Hamas by prioritizing continued attack over ceasefire negotiations that might lead to the hostages’ release. “A forever war is in his interest,” one critic says in the film — meaning, the longer Israel remains at war, the less likely it is Netanyahu will face prosecution. Another observer remarks, “He wants instability. He needs it, in a way.”
If that portrait weren’t negative enough, Bloom told the TIFF audience she heard from many other Netanyahu insiders who denounced him privately.
“I spoke to people very close to Netanyahu, his former chiefs of staff, former heads of the Shin Bet [Israeli intelligence organization], all of these very muscular dudes who were in very senior positions who spoke to me for hours, for hours, off the record, multiple times… They’d be like, ‘It’s terrible what he’s doing. He’s so dishonest,’” Bloom recounted. “They had such strong feelings about Netanyahu’s dishonesty as a person, and as a person in office, enough to sit there with me at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem and talk to me about it for three hours — and then not say anything in public. I think that’s a sort of a [derogation] of duty.” That last remark from the director earned a round of applause from the audience.
As the credits for the film rolled, part of the audience rose to give it a standing ovation (perhaps one-third to one-half of attendees). Many in the audience appeared sympathetic to the film’s critique of Netanyahu; one man interrupted the Q&A to say, “Take this film and airdrop it over Israel. Because, otherwise, I’m afraid people won’t be able to see it there.”
But others appeared to take issue with a remark by Gibney, who said of Netanyahu, “I’ve never seen the depth of moral corruption as I’ve seen in this man.” Hearing this, a man in the audience shouted, “He was not found guilty yet, by the way.” [Netanyahu is supposed to go on trial on the corruption charges next year, although the film notes his legal team is trying to get it postponed because the prime minister is fighting a war]. “He wasn’t found guilty yet,” the man repeated, “so please be precise and accurate. He wasn’t found guilty yet.”
Gibney, not a shrinking violet by any means, retorted, “I believe I said, ‘moral corruption.’” TIFF lead documentary programmer Thom Powers, who moderated the Q&A, then intervened to say, “If I can just ask for order in the theater.”
The Bibi Files (the title refers to Netanyahu’s nickname, “Bibi”) is seeking distribution. It technically played as a work in progress, but as he introduced the film, Powers described it as completed except for color correction and other relatively cosmetic post-production. Bloom has been working on the film up until the last moment, adding excerpts of Netanyahu’s recent address to a joint session of the U.S. Congress. She said she would contemplate possible revisions now that the film has held its world premiere.
“I would say that, under enormous pressure and great speed, Alexis and the team have put this film together very quickly,” Gibney observed. “And there’s a moment where you want to look at the film and say, ‘Could this be a little bit different? Could that be a little bit different?’ …But it’s up to Alexis to decide exactly how or if the film will change.”
Gibney said he wanted The Bibi Files to premiere at TIFF so potential buyers could see it in a festival atmosphere. He expressed hope that it will be picked up in short order and promptly released.