As social upheaval continues to spread worldwide and populist movements lurch further rightward, teetering toward violence, one of the questions many sociopolitical analysts are pondering is what motivates people, young men in particular, to become radicalized? The advent and popularity of social media is one of the more conventional guesses, with charismatic speakers luring young people with content playing on their fears and isolation. But is watching 30 minute videos for a few years all it takes to make a radical? Or is the truth more complicated, with radicalization more of a journey than an instant change? Israel’s submission for the Best International Film category at this year’s Oscars uses one historical event to delve into this phenomenon.
Incitement follows the true story of Yigal Amir (Yehuda Nahari Halevi), a law student and a devoted Orthodox Jew of Yemeni descent who would go on to assassinate Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. Following Rabin’s announcement in 1993 of the Oslo Accords and his intention to bring peace between Israel and the Palestinians, Yigal becomes incredulous at the idea that the Prime Minister would cede territory to their sworn enemy. Amidst the pressure of trying to find a wife while balancing school and taking in the arguments of local rabbis that Rabin is guilty of ancient Jewish Law of the Pursuer which calls for his death, Yigal slowly transforms from a passionately conservative political observer into an extremist. Convinced he must stop the signing of the peace treaty in order to fulfill his destiny and bring salvation to his people, Yigal sees only one way forward.
Despite being a story specifically surround the incendiary topic of Israeli-Palestinian relations and policy, Incitement serves as a timely examination of one of the great issues of our time; how disaffected young men become swept into extremist movements and inspired to commit politically motivated violence. Whether it is Islamic extremism or neo-Nazi ideology, the world is currently struggling to address the pain, confusion, and anger consuming young men across the world, throughout numerous cultures and nations, that is fast turning geopolitics into a powder keg. The circumstances that lead young men down the path of radicalization are manifold however, a point that Incitement makes clear. Sure, there is the issue of rabbis stoking the flames of violence and uprising, whose lectures condemning Rabin to death we peek into alongside Yigal, but what inspires him to strike out even more are the micro instances of the people surrounding him who speak of Rabin’s heretical behavior, most notably his own mother Geula (Anat Ravnitzki). The attitudes and experiences that are most close have the most substantial effect on us.
In that vein, Yigal’s motivations that send him on his descent into political assassination can be traced back to his birth, before any Rabbi was able to proselytize to him. In Incitement’s first act, Geula explains the story behind how Yigal was named. She explained that his uncle proclaimed during his bris, which occurred in the midst of the War of Attrition, that the baby would grow into a man who would redeem the Jews. That this proclamation became family lore which Yigal heard from the time he could understand speech had to have an indelible effect on how he viewed himself and his destiny. When he then interacted with extreme teachings from Rabbis promising greatness and heavenly rewards for the Jew who would kill Rabin and deliver their people from his tyranny, it is was like lighting the wick on a stick of dynamite with a match. Life, however, is often governed by duality, the good and the bad giving rise to each other. Just as the affirmations of Yigal’s being destined toward greatness gradually pushed him toward the edge, so too did the harshness of society. Another motivating factor for Yigal was his Yemeni heritage as Jew who presented to the world as a darker-skinned Arab. Yigal’s courtship of an Ashkenazi classmate named Nava (Daniella Kertesz) illustrates the effect that his ethnicity had on how he was treated and viewed by others, and thus, why he may have felt compelled to overcompensate in order to “prove” his Jewishness. Being non-Ashkenazi, Yigal and ethnic Jews are looked at as lesser than, and otherized as not “fully” Jewish. Just as his delusions of grandeur had fueled him, so too did this inferiority complex with both serving as the gasoline lit aflame by the radical Rabbis. In Yigal’s journey, we receive a glimpse of how radicalization occurs; sure, the bad actors/influencers have their crosses to bear, but they are only taking advantage of pre-existing conditions that make young people ripe for manipulation. Thus, the argument becomes that the key to preventing a troubled young man from becoming a future killer or terrorist, is to address the conditions that make him ready to bloom rather than waiting until he begins to sprout.
Incitement’s technical aspects add to the film’s quality, most notably the way the film is shot. Director Yaron Zilberman and director of photography Amit Yasur, utilize camera work and angles that sit us directly alongside Yigal, almost from first-person perspective at points, during his path to radicalization. By taking the same path as the future assassin, we become even more immersed in his story, learning how he came to be. This technique is used most effectively in the scenes where Yigal observes the Rabbis calling for the death of Rabin, where we’re shown just how emotionally provoking their speeches were and why they may have motivated violence. The sound design also contained some inventive aspects, particularly during a scene featuring Yigal at the shooting range where we hear how the gunshots sound from his perspective while wearing earmuffs. The technique is also another example of the immersive style of the film that puts us directly in Yigal’s shoes.
The biggest lesson coming out of Incitement is that those who feel as if they have nothing to live for will try to find something to die for. The film’s depiction of Yigal Amir and how he turned from law student to assassin is a powerful depiction of all the elements of radicalization and how not only society plays a part, but how individuals often people down dangerous paths. Yaron Zilberman’s immersive style serves to make Yigel’s descent feel as real and visceral as possible and makes Incitement that much more powerful.
Image: Metro Communications
