Promotional image from movie
Photo: Alon Ron
Settlers furious after teens appear in movie about Rabin murder
Parents angry to learn their children appear as extras in new Amos Gitai movie 'Rabin, the Last Day' and demand to edit them out; movie production: All extras signed consent forms of their own free will.
Parents of settler youth who appeared as extras in Amos Gitai's new movie, "Rabin, the Last Day," are demanding to edit their children out of the movie and threatening to sue the production.
The parents said they were not told what the movie was about and did not want their children to appear in promotional material for the movie.
The movie, which is competing in the 72nd Venice Film Festival, incorporates archival footage along with scenes Gitai filmed as he went back to the events that transpired 20 years ago when prime minister Yitzhak Rabin was murdered by Yigal Amir.
'Rabin, the Last Day' trailer
"Several weeks ago, a friend sent me a photo of an article about Amos Gitai's movie, with a picture of my son and his friend's faces," said the mother of one of the teenagers, who resides in the Binyamin region of the West Bank. "And then I remembered he told me he was going to be an extra in some movie. He told me they asked several of his friends to come for one day of filming and paid each NIS 200."
She claimed that the production did not explain to the teens what the movie was about, and did not obtain the parents' written permission to include the teens in the movie.
In a letter sent by the parents, they retracted the teens' consent to appear in the movie and demanded to remove them from it, as well as from any promotional material.
"Including them in the movie, in the context they were filmed and the context they are being presented in, is harmful to them, their reputation and their privacy, and was done for profit," the letter states.
"I didn't think this was a project with a political agenda. When I saw my son's face in a poster advertising the movie, I realized they were deliberately looking for teens who looked like hilltop youth," the mother added, saying she worries being associated with the movie could hurt her son in the future.
"It bothers me that my son's face will be etched in memory as someone linked to Rabin's murder. The hilltop youth had nothing to do with Rabi's murder, it's a phenomenon that started later, but it was easier for the filmmakers to tie them politically. It's exploitation."
The parents' attorney said: "Taking advantage of the minors' innocence, hiding the matter from their parents, and including the minors as extras in a political movie directed against them, exposes the director's shameful morals."
The movie's production said in response: "The letter was passed on to the movie's legal advisers and will receive an appropriate response, as is customary in legal proceedings. We find it strange that the letter was only sent yesterday and that the honorable attorneys (who, to our understanding, are only trying to protect the hilltop youth), did not wait for an appropriate response before turning to the media. The filming of the movie ended half a year ago and no one has made any complaints. All extras in the movie signed, of their own free will, a contract giving their consent to appear as extras in the movie."
