Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is the subject of a new documentary, “The Bibi Files,” produced by Academy Award winner Alex Gibney and directed by Alexis Blum. The two-hour documentary, which will screen as a work in progress at the Toronto International Film Festival, includes never-before-seen footage of Netanyahu being interrogated by police.
The recordings were made between 2016 and 2018 as part of evidence gathering to determine whether the Israeli prime minister should be indicted on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust.
In 2023, the recordings were leaked to Gibney, and they include extensive interviews with Bibi, his wife Sara, his son Yair, the prime minister's friends and associates, as well as household staff.
“These recordings shed light on Netanyahu’s character in an unprecedented and extraordinary way,” Gibney says. “They are powerful evidence of his corrupt and venal character and how he led us to where we are now.”
“The Baby Files is a first-rate piece of documentary journalism,” says Tom Powers, senior documentary programmer at the Toronto International Film Festival. “Alexis Bloom and Alex Gibney have obtained previously unseen, revealing footage and conducted in-depth interviews with a wide range of figures, including from the highest levels of the Israeli government. It’s a clear example of why feature-length documentaries are so vital to our culture to cover a story that has been unfolding for many years. We live in a time when traditional journalism outlets have suffered major cuts, so independent companies like Jigsaw Productions are needed more than ever.”
Netanyahu has been charged with fraud, bribery and breach of trust in three cases filed in 2019.
Although the recordings, which contain thousands of hours of interviews all in Hebrew, were made more than eight years ago, they have not been seen anywhere, including in Israel, due to the country's privacy law.
“Netanyahu’s character is very prominent in the footage,” Bloom says. “I would say the difference between this film and a news report or something you might see on PBS about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is that this is a very human look at the people who are making headlines.”
Bloom, who previously collaborated with Gibney on “Divide and Conquer: The Roger Ailes Story” and “We Steal Secrets: The WikiLeaks Story,” explains that the documentary uses the interrogation videos as “a way into” the story of Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving leader who has held office six times — more than any other prime minister in the country’s history.
“Our job on this film was to connect these investigations and corruption trials to everything that comes after,” says Bloom, who began working on the project before the October 7 attacks that sparked the ongoing war between Hamas and Israel.
“The Bibi Files” moves between Netanyahu’s present and his past, and according to Gibney, it “reveals something Shakespearean about the man in the sense that his slow corruption of character and his desperate need to stay in power led him to do terrible things that we now see evidence of.”
Bloom says Netanyahu's proposed reform of Israel's judicial system in 2023 was one of the reasons she appeared in the film.
“The Netanyahu government is trying to reform the Supreme Court and then waging war in a way that would never have happened if it hadn’t had such an extremist coalition,” she says.
Bloom, whose father is Jewish and a firm believer in Israel’s right to exist, visited Israel several times during her childhood and adulthood. She and Gibney say they decided to make a documentary that would not promote the ideas of any religious group. Instead, they see the film, which features only Israelis, as a truth-telling documentary that focuses on human rights, not just the rights of Israelis and Palestinians.
“I tried hard to find common ground in this film—something we could all agree on,” Bloom says. “That Netanyahu is staying on too long is something that a lot of Israelis and a lot of Palestinians agree on. They may disagree when you go too far in terms of resolving the Middle East crisis. They will certainly disagree on that, but I think in fact most people, except the most diehard Netanyahu supporters, agree that Netanyahu should go.”
Bloom and Gibney decided to screen the film, which is seeking distribution, at the Toronto International Film Festival as a work in progress due to the ongoing war.
“There’s a certain urgency to dealing with this material and Netanyahu’s character at a time when we’re being told, ‘Oh, these discussions are going to be postponed until another day because Netanyahu is in the middle of a war,’” Gibney says. “We felt it was important, and frankly, our duty as global citizens to get our story out as soon as possible because people are dying every day.”
Streamers’ preference for nonfiction shows about celebrities or true crime over anything that deals with thorny, complex issues or personalities makes the Netanyahu documentary a tough sell. But Bloom and Gibney are confident it will find a home.
“We’re not trying to decide what to do about the conflict,” Bloom says. “This film is a portrait of the man[Netanyahu]and it’s a portrait of his family. I think the film is more entertaining than a lot of the political reporting on the subject, so I hope someone has the courage to pick it up.”
The Baby Files will screen at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 9 and 10.
