Lieber-man
Image by Haim Hermon
ליבר-מן | Nurit Kedar | Israel, 2019 | Hebrew/Russian (English subtitles) | Documentary | 56m | IMDB | Distributor/Sales: Go2Films | Festival marketing sample: JFF 2019
Description: Avigdor Lieberman emigrated to Israel from the USSR in the late 1970s, at the age of twenty. Initially employed as a baggage handler at the airport, he later took on a number of security gigs. A political outsider, occasionally violent right wing activist at University, he enjoyed an unlikely rise thanks to his early association with Benjamin Netanyahu. He followed him to serve as his Director General of the Prime Minister’s Office, his Infrastructure Minister, his Foreign Minister and his Defense Minister. Wearing a tie adorned with illustrations of handguns on the day his boss assumed office, soon after Rabin’s assassination, Lieberman shocked the departing political establishment and developed a reputation for brusqueness.
Forming his own Yisrael Beytenu party, he relied initially on the votes of immigrants from the Soviet Union to gain power. His virulent attacks on Israeli Arab members of the Knesset and other appeals to anti-Arab sentiments have helped enlarge his base. More recently, he broke with Netanyahu and has advocated against legislative concessions granted to the ultra-Orthodox. Lieberman has been investigated and charged with corruption. His supporters do not care about such things, his police investigator complains. Actually, he believes, this has served to increase Lieberman’s political capital.
Interviews with his supporters, detractors and archival material are supplemented by extensive original footage. Kedar follows Lieberman as he enjoys a game of tennis, visits a football match, interacts with his parents and grandchild, tours the border with Gaza, enjoys a meal with colleagues and celebrates his acquittal with his supporters. Outside his home he is seldom seem smiling, often radiating uneasiness and generally accompanied by a heavy security detail.
Merits: Despite the film appearing to give him ample opportunities to do so, Lieberman fails to repudiate a reputation for charmlessness and opacity. He reveals very little about himself other than his anger at his persecutors. The only intimate detail he shares is a childhood memory of being in a crowded bus in the USSR with his parents. Their insistence on speaking loudly in Yiddish apparently provoked hostile glares from other passengers.
As we see his entourage reach the court that will acquit him, Keder comments wryly: “We expect the institutions, the media, the courts, the police, to do the work for us so that we don’t have to decide for ourselves what acceptable behaviour is, what our values and norms are, so we can continue to consume politics as entertainment because when it comes to the important things there will always be a responsible adult: an officer, a lawyer or a judge who will decide and act [for us.] But they can’t, neither the DA, nor the army, the courts or the police.” You do not need to be Israeli to relate to this powerful indictment of the current political culture.
Rating: Suitable for all audiences.
Programming considerations: It is not inconceivable that Lieberman assumes Prime Ministership of Israel. If that occurs, this film will become even more topical.