JERUSALEM (JTA) — A film that takes a sympathetic look at Yitzhak Rabin’s assassin was screened in Jerusalem a day before the city’s annual film festival.
“Beyond the Fear” was screened Wednesday night to two sold-out showings. The 10-day Jerusalem Film Festival was threatened with funding cuts if it showed the film, which will be eligible for festival awards.
The documentary looks at Yigal Amir’s life in prison, where the 45-year-old is serving a life sentence for the 1995 assassination of Rabin, then the prime minister. It chronicles Amir’s relationship with Larissa Trimbobler, who he married a decade ago. The couple have a son.
The film was made by the Latvian-Israeli director Herz Frank, who died two years ago during production. His wife, Maria Kravchenko, completed the effort. “Beyond the Fear” reportedly was included in the festival as a tribute to Frank.
Left-wing lawmakers had called for the film to be dropped from the festival.
“I won’t investigate it and I won’t try to stop it,” Noa Rothman, Rabin’s granddaughter and a television writer, said last month. “But whoever holds democracy dear to his heart should be afraid of this because it is a very cynical use of free speech.”
