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Director:
Yoav ShamirProducer:
Karoline LethMusic:
Mischa KrauszScreenplay:
Yoav ShamirStory:
Yoav ShamirGenres:
DocumentaryCertification:
General audiencesStatus:
CompletedSoundmix:
Dolby SRAlso known as:
Defamation (International: English title)
Sykofantia Greece (festival title)
Plot Summary
Hashmatsa
Two generations after the Holocaust, what does anti-Semitism look like? In his continuing exploration of modern Israeli life, director Yoav Shamir (Checkpoint, Flipping Out) travels the world in search of the most modern manifestations of the “oldest hatred and comes up with some surprising revelations. Shamir was inspired to investigate the meanings behind the phrase after being called anti-Semitic in a film review.
His exploration includes interviews with Abraham Foxman, the president of the Anti-Defamation League, and with controversial historian Norman Finkelstein. Shamir joins scholars giving a lecture on their book “The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy.” He tags along on a field trip with Israeli teenagers to the German concentration camp Auschwitz.
He talks to New York Orthodox Jews and their African American neighbors, rabbis, professors, and even his grandmother in Israel. Defamation is a thorny, provocative, surprising, and humorous film that questions our perceptions and terminology, and explores the boundaries between legitimate criticism and anti-Semitism.
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