The Gatekeepers
Composite Score: 83.3
Featuring: Ami Ayalon, Avraham Shalom, Avi Dichter, Yaakov Peri, Yuval Diskin, and Carmi Gillon
Director: Dror Moreh
Genres: Documentary, History, War
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for violent content including disturbing images
Box Office: $2.57 million worldwide
Why should you Watch This Film?
The Gatekeepers is a 2012 documentary about the Shin Bet, Israel’s highly secretive security agency, formed almost entirely of interviews with the surviving heads of the agency. The documentary is both historical and political, covering the facts of the various eras of the agency and its involvement in Israel’s conflicts as well as the views of the six different heads about their own and one another’s actions. The film focuses heavily on the Shin Bet’s involvement with the Six Day War, the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, the invasion of Lebanon, and the war on “terror”. It’s a fascinating watch not only for its historical and political relevance but also for its interviews, which contain so many layers of espionage talk that it almost feels like listening to a redacted account that you have to read between the lines of to get to the actual truth.
Why shouldn’t you Watch This Film?
Though the documentary is fairly critical of the immoral and at times illegal actions of the Shin Bet, neither the men in the documentary nor the nation of Israel nor even the Shin Bet has faced major legal or international consequences for those actions. As such, the film can feel a bit half-hearted at times, trying to point out flaws to the general public that really won’t have much actual impact beyond vague social ramifications. Each head that is interviewed in the film seems convinced that his actions were excusable – and perhaps even the best course – while also believing that the actions of the other heads are more worthy of critique. It is a lesson in blind spots, harmonizing, and self-justification that none of the film’s key figures seem to have grasped. I’d also be remiss if I didn’t point out the fact that, since 2012, the relations between Israel and Palestine have not improved and that the Israeli government continues to enact violence against the Palestinians, seeming to indicate that this documentary did not have the intended impact (or at least not widespread enough).
So wait, why should you Watch This Film?
Much of what makes The Gatekeepers so frustrating is also what makes it so enjoyable. From the glaring subjectivity of its interviewees to the ways that questions get danced around and answered crossways to the film’s (and the interviewees’) seemingly obvious conclusion that the best way for Israel to deal with Palestine is to communicate and treat them as equals and cease their conflicts. It’s a wild experience to watch the former head of a security force (and once one of the most feared men in the Israeli government) defend all of his own actions and condemn those that come after him whose actions, in places, feel less horrendous than his own, but that is the case for Avraham Shalom and for basically every other man that gives an interview in this film. The way that these men will defend themselves while voicing opinions that would seem to condemn their own actions gives the film an added level of human criticism, inviting the audience to step beyond the issues of Israel and examine how we might be behaving similarly in our own lives.
Within those contradictory statements come a plethora of half-truths, doublespeak, and cover-ups. It is in those points of the interviews that Moreh’s filmmaking truly shines, using footage and the words of the other interviewees to expose the truth of each man’s attempt at covering, inviting the audience along on an entertaining trip of exposing state secrets. Moreh is not shy about his own biases on the subjects that he discusses with the Shin Bet leaders, and it’s interesting to see the way that their interviews seem to lead them to the conclusion that he wants them and the audience to draw. Clearly, the film is meant to be against the conflict between Israel and Palestine, but by making a film about the people (often) at the spearhead of the conflict who have arrived at that same conclusion, Moreh gives his documentary power and impact for the audience, as it is no longer just his opinion but the opinion of seasoned professionals as well.
The Gatekeepers is an entertaining game of espionage, doublespeak, and contradictions that ultimately leads to a place of potential change and growth for both its subjects and the audience, accomplishing at least part of the filmmaker’s goal and cementing a spot among the greats. The seeming lack of accountability for its subjects’ actions and the film’s failure to achieve any kind of lasting change count against it in some regards, but that doesn’t mean that it is without merit. It is currently available to rent via most streaming services if you’re looking to give it a shot.
