Incitement, the best-picture winner at Israel’s Ophir Awards, is the country’s choice to vie for the Best International Film Oscar.
The winner, a drama about the period leading up to the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin by a Jewish extremist in 1995, had its world premiere at the Toronto Film Fest.
The movie was directed by Yaron Zilberman and co-written by Zilberman and Ron Leshem, creator of the original Israeli TV series “Euphoria” and the Oscar-nominated “Beaufort.”
Zilberman’s acceptance speech for the best-picture prize was one of few overtly political moments of the night, coming days after an inconclusive national election in Israel.
“Rabin was a giant of a man who was murdered because of his struggle to bring peace,” said Zilberman. In a jab at Benjamin Netanyahu, who is fighting to remain prime minister, Zilberman said he hoped that, in the wake of the election, “a leader can arise who, instead of dividing and inciting, can unite us and cause us to love one another, raising the level of love and not the level of violence.”
