There is a side
of David Ben-Gurion that few have seen and, with the work-of-cinematic-art that
is Israeli director Yariv Mozer’s Ben-Gurion: Epilogue, is revealed to the world
in a 70-minute documentary.
The film screened twice in Wellington at the Roxy Theatre
and twice in Auckland at the Q Theatre. The Doc Edge International Documentary
Film Festival is a not-for-profit independent Oscar qualifying festival. The
Embassy of Israel sponsored filmmaker Yariv Mozer’s attendance at the festival.
Several of the screenings were either sold-out or close to it, as it proved a
popular film at the festival. At the Auckland showing, a special Maori celebration and honor was bestowed upon Mozer (including a beautiful song)
About the film: The interview, which took place in 1968 at his secluded desert home in
Sde Boker, features the introspective Ben-Gurion discussing the loss of his
wife, personal health, political legacy and his hopes for Middle East peace.
The story
of the making of this film almost deserves its own documentary. For decades, reels
of silent footage were languishing in the Steven Spielberg Jewish Film Archive
in Jerusalem until they were inadvertently discovered. The corresponding
soundtrack was later found in the Ben-Gurion Archives in the Negev. The
restored interview is interwoven with newsreels and other archival materials,
including images of the unassuming elder statesman’s charmingly simple kibbutz
life, taking daily strolls and working the farmlands.