Chasing Yehoshua
לתפוס את יהושע | Shay Fogelman | Israel, 2019 | Hebrew/Arabic/German/Portuguese/English (English subtitles) | Documentary | 82m | DCP | IMDB |Distributor/Sales: Cinephil | Festival marketing sample: IDFA 2019 | Trailer
Description: Johannes Wimmer is a German Catholic who converted to Judaism changing his name to Yehoshua Elitzur in the process. He moved to Itamar, a hilltop settlement in the West Bank. In September 2004 he shot and killed Sael Jabara al-Shatiya, a Palestinian taxi driver. He claimed that Shatiya had tried to run him over. Convicted in an Israeli court, Elitzur was released pending sentencing and unsurprisingly promptly disappeared. Fogelman, a Ha’aretz reporter who covered the case, was sufficiently moved by Yasmin, Shatiya’s daughter, to try and locate her father’s killer. Taking a month’s leave from his paper, he embarked on an odyssey that lasted nine years and spanned three continents.
Merits: Fogelman uses humorous techniques of subterfuge and deception to elicit information and to film unwitting subjects in his attempt to track down Elitzur. Realising that Elitzur’s mother may be in touch with her son, he tries to convince her that she won a package of free international phone calls. Later, after conducting a formal interview with him, he casually asks Elitzur’s brother for his wifi password in order to hack his router. (Viewers familiar with the work of British documentary filmmaker Nick Broomfield may notice some similarities.) Aside from the tragedy suffered by Shatiya and his family, this is a highly entertaining investigative documentary.
Rating: Suitable for all audiences.