The Reconstruction / Hashikhzur (1994)
Director.........: Avi Mograbi
Country..........: Israel
On December 8, 1983 a fifteen year old Jewish boy from the city of Haifa
was kidnapped, murdered and sexually abused after his death. Five Arabs
who worked in in the neighborhood’s supermarket were convicted and
imprisoned for life and 27 years. The conviction was based only on the
defendants’ confessions and reconstructions. Seventeen years after their
conviction, the five defendants still claim they are innocent.
THE RECONSTRUCTION follows the police investigation and juridical
process step by step. The heart of the film is the original videotaped
reconstructions of the murder performed by the defendants in which they
admit their guilt. Presented also is a secretly recorded audio tape made
by the police during the investigation in which one of the defendants
begs his alibi witness to withdraw his favorable testimony. Introducing a
surprising new evidence by former Head of Investigations in The Israeli
Security Service as to the defendants’ state during the investigation
and a pathological analysis of the original death certificate in
relation to the defendants’ reconstructions - the film raises doubts as
to whether the five have at all taken part in the murder and as to the
ability to ever learn the truth, concerning a specific event and in
general.
Director.........: Mani Kaul
