''Death in the Terminal'' is a 2016 Israeli Rashomon style

documentary A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...

film by Tali Shemesh and Asaf Sudri, recounting the events of the October 2015 Beersheva bus station shooting.

Synopsis

The film reconstructs the first 18 minutes after the shooting, when an

Eritrea Eritrea, officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa, with its capital and largest city being Asmara. It is bordered by Ethiopia in the Eritrea–Ethiopia border, south, Sudan in the west, and Dj ...

n refugee was mistaken for a terrorist, shot by a security guard and beaten by bystanders. Security camera footage is inter-cut with eyewitness interviews and video from mobile phones. However, the film does not reveal until two-thirds of the way through that the man on the ground is innocent, leaving the audience to assume until then that he is the terrorist.

Production

The film is directed by Tali Shemesh and Asaf Sudry. The security footage used was not released by the Israeli authorities, but was leaked to the filmmakers. The film was produced by filmmaker

Alma Har'el Alma Har'el (; born July 2, 1975) is an Israeli-American music video and film director. She is best known for her 2019 feature film debut '' Honey Boy'', for which she won a Directors Guild of America Award. Her 2011 documentary '' Bombay Beach ...

in partnership with YesDocu, and executive produced by

Megan Ellison Margaret "Megan" Elizabeth Ellison (born January 31, 1986) is an American film producer, entrepreneur, and daughter of multibillionaire Larry Ellison. She is a founder of Annapurna Pictures, established in 2011. She produced the films ''Zero D ...

and

Mark Boal Mark Boal (born January 23, 1973) is an American journalist, screenwriter, and film producer. Boal initially worked as a journalist, writing for outlets like ''Rolling Stone'', ''The Village Voice'', ''Salon'', and '' Playboy''. Boal's 2004 arti ...

through his film and television production company Page 1.

Release

The film aired on Israeli TV in 2016. The

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

rights were acquired by

First Look Media First Look Media is an American nonprofit media organization founded by Pierre Omidyar in October 2013 as a venue for "original, independent journalism". The project was started as a collaboration with Glenn Greenwald, Jeremy Scahill, and La ...

in early 2017 and it was released on

Buzzfeed News ''BuzzFeed News'' was an American news website published by BuzzFeed beginning in 2011. It ceased posting new hard news content in May 2023. It published a number of high-profile scoops, including the Steele dossier, for which it was strong ...

and Topic.com on 6 September 2017.

Awards

The film won Best Picture, Best Original Score and Best Director at the 2016

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( or , ; ), sometimes rendered as Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and usually referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the Gush Dan metropolitan area of Israel. Located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline and with a popula ...

DocAviv Docaviv (), also known as the Tel Aviv International Documentary Film Festival, is the only film festival in Israel dedicated to documentary films, and the largest film festival in Tel Aviv. It is run by a non-profit organisation of the same name ...

Festival. It won an Audience Award and Best Mid-length documentary at the

Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival The Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival is the largest documentary festival in North America. The event takes place annually in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The 27th edition of the festival took place online throughout May and Jun ...

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

. The film also won Best Mid Length Documentary at the 2016

International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam The International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) is the world's largest documentary film festival held annually since 1988 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Description IDFA is an independent, international meeting place for audiences ...

and Best Documentary under 60 minutes at the 2016

Ophir Award The Ophir Awards (), full name: the Israel Film Academy Award, sometimes also known as the Israeli Oscars or the Israeli Academy Awards, are film awards for excellence in the Israeli film industry awarded by the Israeli Academy of Film and Tele ...

References

External links

* Israeli documentary films Documentary films about terrorism Documentary films about death Documentary films about the Arab–Israeli conflict {{hist-documentary-film-stub