Incitement *** (2019, Yehuda Nahari Halevi, Amitai Yaish, Anat Ravnitzki, Yoav Levi, Daniella Kertesz, Sivan Mast) – Movie Review

Director/ co-writer Yaron Zilberman’s insightful, expertly done psychological thriller Incitement (2019) details a series of profoundly disturbing personal and political events in the year leading up to the assassination of Israel’s Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995.

The story is seen from the point of view of the killer, Yigal Amir, giving Yehuda Nahari a huge role that he plays convincingly, with a mix of cool charm and chilly menace. Yigal is a law student. He could have had a good life. Instead he seeks to kill democracy in Israel.

The complex, incendiary issues of religion and politics are handled with clarity and restraint, while Zilberman gets deep into the head of the assassin, a man clearly of great intelligence but much stupidity, who allows himself to be all too readily persuaded by the forces of religious incitement to pull the trigger.

All the performances are naturalistic, convincing and strong, and Zilberman keeps firm control of a tricky topic, both on the home front as a portrait of a troubled individual and on the political front as a portrait of a torn society.

Yigal’s family and friends are explored in considerable detail. Daniella Kertesz and Sivan Mast have significant roles as the women in Yigal’s life, Nava and Margalit.

Also in the cast are Amitai Yaish, Anat Ravnitzki, and Yoav Levi.

The Israeli Film Academy awarded it Best Film.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Movie Review

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