Netanyahu tried to block screening of film about him in Toronto

After facing a failed attempt by Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to block their world premiere screening, the filmmakers behind the anti-Netanyahu documentary The Bibi Files continued to present their work at the Toronto International Film Festival on Monday night with a mixture of fierce determination and dizzying triumph.

The film by Alexis Bloom, which builds its case against the longtime Israeli prime minister based on never-before-seen interrogation tapes, has sometimes been shown as a rallying cry for pro-Israel, often anti-Netanyahu, crowds.

“We have to find a way to take this film and airdrop it into Israel,” said one Israeli attendee after the screening, although judging by the growing crowds of protesters on the streets of Tel Aviv following the deaths of six Israeli hostages, the message may have already been received.

The Bibi Files was produced by Oscar- and Emmy-winning documentarian Alex Gibney, who said he and Bloom lobbied to show the work in Toronto in light of the ongoing war and the tragedies it has wrought on all sides.

“People are dying every day, and we wanted to make a statement with this film,” Gibney told the audience after the screening.

Bloom, who continues to shape and add to the documentary, said that while her work took on added urgency in light of Hamas’s invasion of Israel on October 7, 2023, and the ensuing war and humanitarian crisis in Gaza, she actually began to realize it during the protests against judicial reform in Israel that began in early 2023. “You can see this pattern playing out all over the world, this democratic backsliding,” she said of the event that sparked the protests. Bloom previously explored these themes with her 2018 film Roger Ailes Divide and conquer and Gibney’s Wikileaks film We steal secretsthat she produced.

The festival’s documentary programming director, Thom Powers, scheduled the film to be screened last week about Netanyahu, believing it had something important to say about the current crisis in the Middle East.

As the credits rolled and the audience rose to applaud, a dozen people held signs calling for a cease-fire and a deal on the hostage crisis. Outside on King Street before the screening, protesters chanted slogans in Hebrew calling for new parliamentary elections, a cease-fire and a deal on the hostage crisis.

The film does not yet have a distribution deal, but Gibney hopes the festival screenings will help it get one.

Bibi Files The case arose after a source contacted Gibney with the secret recordings of the interrogation last year. The recordings had never been seen in Israel (although some of their contents were leaked to journalists working in the written press) and probably never will be, at least officially, given the existence of a privacy law that would put the source in legal jeopardy.

Although the privacy law apparently applies only to Israel, Netanyahu’s lawyers asked the judge in his corruption trial to block the Toronto screening, arguing that the film was still subject to the law internationally. The judge, Oded Shaham, rejected the motion to immediately block the film, allowing Monday’s screening and a second screening on Tuesday, while asking for a response from the directors by Wednesday.

The Bibi Files The book uses a mix of historical discourse and courtroom truths to paint a portrait of a leader who seized power for corrupt and selfish reasons — the allegations include gifts of about $250,000 received in exchange for political favors — to the detriment of his country. While it focuses on Netanyahu’s policy on the Gaza war, it focuses primarily on his corruption trial, in which charges of fraud, bribery and breach of trust were handed down nearly five years ago, and the trial continues apace.

The corruption allegations against Netanyahu, the influence of his wife Sara and the coalition with far-right politicians are well known to those who follow Israeli politics. But seeing the most powerful man in the country’s modern history in a weak position facing police investigators in his office – where he is sometimes cheerful, sometimes indignant and often provocative – could paint a particularly negative picture.

The film also offers candid looks at a who’s who of contemporary Israeli figures, from Hollywood producer and longtime Netanyahu ally Arnon Milchan to current Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid (a former finance minister under Netanyahu) talking about what they knew about alleged corruption in unusually frank interrogation rooms. The unwitting co-starring roles of Sara Netanyahu (angrier and more outspoken than her husband) and her son Yair (a right-wing influencer who calls police investigators “the Stasi”) complete the picture.

Israeli investigative journalist Raviv Drucker, a well-known Netanyahu opponent, is the film’s main interlocutor and de facto narrator (and producer). The film also benefits from the presence of a 19-year-old Israeli woman from Kibbutz Be’eri who gives a very anti-Netanyahu perspective from the field.

A member of the public pointed out Monday that Netanyahu had not been found guilty and warned against rushing to judgment without a conviction.

While The Bibi Files In its current form, the message does not extend to last week’s protests (it ends with Netanyahu’s speech to Congress this summer), but its spread could nonetheless fuel the growing call from a large majority of Israelis for a ceasefire and a hostage deal from Netanyahu and a change of government. A poll last week by Israel’s Channel 12 found that more than two-thirds of Israelis believe Netanyahu should not run in the upcoming elections.

As with all documentaries, the question is whether the film will continue this momentum or simply reinforce opinions already expressed.

Gibney, at least, believes it could bring new clarity to international audiences.

“For many Americans, the war goes on and on and on. And a lot of people wonder why it goes on,” he told the TIFF audience. “And I think one of the reasons we chose this film is to explain a lot of the events that we see today through the corruption, the moral corruption, of this individual.”