75' 2019 Israel director: Barak Heymann, Uri Levi cinematography: Uri Levi, Barak Heymann editing: Nili Feller production: Heymann Brothers Films
One of Watch Docs’ favorite directors is back with the European premiere of his film about one of the greatest parliamentarians in the recent history of the Knesset, a defender of Palestinian rights who is always in solidarity with the weakest when state power is directed against them. Politics doesn’t spare him from constant disappointment, but absolute fidelity to his ideals remains his trademark. Since he first started in the world of politics, Dov Khenin has felt like ... a communist. The portrait of Lenin on the wall of his office looks anachronistic, evoking smiles of disbelief on the faces of Polish viewers. How is it possible that an authentic defender of human rights is not repulsed by the widely available historical truth about Leninist crimes or the historical fiasco of the Soviet Union? But Heymann’s brilliant and honest film also provokes more profound questions: What is left of the great utopian idealists, and to what extent are human rights perceived as moving from being a universal idea to a utopia of the left today?
