Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic When footage of Benjamin Netanyahu being interrogated by police fell into Alex Gibney’s lap, the documentary filmmaker knew he had to do something with it. Gibney is no stranger to controversial subjects, having forged a career documenting individuals and institutions mired in controversy, from Big Pharma amid the US opioid crisis to Enron and the Church of Scientology. However, a busy schedule meant the 71-year-old needed to call in reinforcements, inviting Alexis Bloom, with whom Gibney had collaborated previously, to direct while he acted as producer.The film was already in the works when the cataclysmic events of October 7 2023 shook the world, followed by Israel’s bloody retaliation in Gaza. “It was a story about corruption, but after October 7 it became much more,” Gibney says. “The corruption increased in its magnitude.” Gibney was approached by his source in early 2023. The tapes, dated between 2016-18, ran into “hundreds of hours” of material connected to Netanyahu’s 2019 indictment on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust. They showed Netanyahu, his wife Sara and son Yair, and associates including the Hollywood producer Arnon Milchan and the late casino magnate Sheldon Adelson and his wife Miriam being interviewed by Israeli police. There are three cases in total. In one, Netanyahu and his wife are accused of receiving gifts from Milchin and Australian billionaire James Packer in exchange for political favours. In the second case, Netanyahu purportedly offered a deal to Israeli magnate Arnon Mozes, seeking positive coverage in Mozes’s Yedioth Ahronoth daily in return for legislation to hamper the circulation of a rival paper. Finally, Netanyahu is accused of granting regulatory favours to Shaul Elovitch, owner of telecoms group Bezeq, in exchange for favourable coverage on the news website Walla.The charges might be old news, but the sight of Netanyahu confronting evidence in real time makes for astonishing viewing. This is Israel’s prime minister as the public has never seen him before: a man at the mercy of his interlocutors, stripped of rehearsal and on the back foot.The trial is ongoing, with Netanyahu due to take the stand for the first time in his corruption trial today. He has denied any wrongdoing and said he was the victim of a “witch hunt”. If convicted, he could face up to 10 years in prison for bribery and a maximum of three years for fraud and breach of trust. “The source told me, ‘I believe you can get this film made’,” says Gibney. But there was one hitch: the film couldn’t be shown in Israel, as privacy law prohibits the release of any audio- or videotape gathered as part of official proceedings unless the person taped consents. Netanyahu was unlikely, of course, to give permission.Even outside Israel, The Bibi Files’ journey to the screen was far from a smooth ride: “Nobody wanted to give us money,” says Gibney. “No mainstream streamers came out to support us. They ran in the opposite direction”. Gibney was “dismayed” that even informal conversations were met by disinterest, despite the documentary containing “unique material that nobody else in the world had”.When the team rolled into the Toronto International Film Festival in September, The Bibi Files was unfinished, its future uncertain. Bloom’s decision to show it as a work in progress provoked Netanyahu to file a lawsuit in an attempt to block the screening from going ahead. The lawsuit failed, but the publicity it generated gifted the filmmakers with enough fundraising muscle to get the film finished. The impact of the Toronto screening also gave encouragement to nervy distributors that there was an audience for the film.The Israeli prime minister might cut a beleaguered figure abroad, but at home his popularity has been growing since the country made battlefield gains across the Middle East. His government is among the most far-right in the country’s history; it includes controversial ultranationalists such as Itamar Ben-Gvir, minister of national security, and finance minister Bezalel Smotrich. Netanyahu’s embrace of once-fringe figures is, The Bibi Files suggests, part of a desperate attempt to evade criminal charges and cling on to power. Indeed, the film draws a direct connection between the corruption charges and the conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon.“I consider myself something of a student of corruption, having made a lot of films about people who are corrupt, or corrupt situations,” says Gibney, “and I’m gobsmacked by the enormity of this man’s corruption.” Netanyahu’s legal team has repeatedly sought to delay his appearance in court, citing the assassination of Hamas military leader Mohammed Deif, the murder of six hostages in Rafah, and a rocket attack on Majdal Shams that killed 12 children. “[These] extraordinary events have rendered it impossible to prepare Netanyahu’s testimony adequately,” his lawyers said.On Sunday, senior government ministers called on Israel’s attorney-general Gali Baharav-Miara to delay the start of Netanyahu’s testimony following the fall of the regime in Syria. Ben-Gvir said that by not agreeing to a delay, Baharav-Miara was “abandoning Israel’s security.”Gibney sees “vivid parallels” between US president-elect Donald Trump and Netanyahu. “A lot of it revolves around the evisceration of the rule of law,” he explains, referencing the US Supreme Court’s presidential immunity ruling in July and Netanyahu’s since overturned attempt at judicial reform.“Both Trump and Netanyahu are under a cloud of investigation and indictment,” he continues. “That sense of trying to undermine or destroy the idea of an independent judiciary is something that is really evident in both cases.”Gibney also fears that Trump’s return to the Oval Office could signal an even greater assault on press freedom. Referencing the “disquieting” alliance with tech billionaire and X owner Elon Musk, Gibney says that he fears the emergence of a de facto “state media”. One of The Bibi Files’ strengths is that it is shot from a strictly Israeli perspective. Gibney enlisted Raviv Drucker, an Israeli investigative journalist and well-known Netanyahu critic, to advise on the initial footage. “Everyone interviewed is Israeli,” Gibney explains, “[and] they’re calling Netanyahu out. Why the rest of the world can’t do the same thing as Israelis inside Israel can do is a mystery to me.”Gibney is optimistic that the documentary will move the dial. But it is critical that Israelis find a way to see The Bibi Files, he says. “It’s a big deal [for Israelis] to finally see Netanyahu, his wife Sara, his son Yair, as well as many others, in an unmediated way, instead of the stage-managed presser that Netanyahu [usually] gives. This is venal people behaving very badly.” ‘The Bibi Files’ is in US cinemas from December 11 and in UK cinemas from December 13
