30 January 2025

The Bibi Files


The Bibi Files

Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel, is on trial for corruption, and videos of his police interviews were leaked to filmmaker Alex Gibney. This footage, filmed in Netanyahu’s office while he was being questioned under caution, is included in Alexis Bloom’s documentary The Bibi Files, which was released last year.

Netanyahu applied for an injunction at the Jerusalem District Court on 9th September 2024, hours before the film was due to be screened at the Toronto International Film Festival in Canada. The injunction was denied, and the screening went ahead, though the film cannot legally be shown in Israel, as Israeli law prohibits the publication of police interview recordings.

The Bibi Files

The Bibi Files reveals Netanyahu and his wife Sara’s extraordinary sense of entitlement, as they at first deny receiving bribes and later attempt to justify the luxury gifts they were given. The PM is seen performatively banging his fist on his desk, calling prosecution witnesses liars—“What a liar!”, he says at one point, in English—and even quoting The Godfather: “Keep your friends close, keep your enemies closer.”