If The Bibi Files has it right, Israel’s democracy – like America’s – is at risk because of the proclivities of its political leader. The latest documentary from producer Alex Gibney’s prolific Jigsaw Productions proposes that the greatest threat to Israel comes from within, from Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu, the 75-year-old former special forces captain who has spent 17 years as its prime minister.

Yet, despite the significance of its subject, it hasn’t been easy to see anywhere in the world. Depending on which news sources you rely on, the actual information that it provides is already available. However, the difference between reading about the criminal charges Netanyahu is facing – his drawn-out trial began on May 24, 2020 – and watching him attempting to fend off the accusations against him tells a different and even more compelling story.

The Bibi Files documentary of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been shortlisted for an Oscar. Credit: Ziv Koren, via Madman/DocPlay

Directed by South African Alexis Bloom, whose Bright Lights: Starring Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds (2016) and Divide and Conquer: The Story of Roger Ailes (2018) earned her Emmy nominations, the film has been shortlisted for best documentary at this year’s Oscars.

Its chief coup is its access to the thousands of hours of police interrogation videos that landed in Gibney’s inbox a couple of years ago and that place Netanyahu and his supporters in the cross-hairs.

The footage shows Netanyahu responding to charges of bribery, fraud and corruption. His angry reactions eloquently expose his sense of entitlement: “You’re asking me delusional questions … This is preposterous and insane … You’re trying to incriminate the prime minister on nonsense…”

However, to avoid any confusion, it needs to be noted that the context that the film creates for the leaked footage is far from an objective assessment of the troubled circumstances in which the state of Israel finds itself.

No reportage about anything can ever lay such a claim about itself. And the cutting between police witnesses’ testimony about the extraordinary precision of Netanyahu’s memory and his repeated refrain to his interrogators of “I don’t remember” guides viewers towards an obvious conclusion.

Seated at his office desk, surrounded by the paraphernalia of his working life – rather than at a police station – he’s clearly conscious of the camera throughout the interviews.

© The Sydney Morning Herald