The Law of the Pursuer
The Law of the Pursuer by Amos Gitai
ISR 2017, Forum Expanded
© Amos Gitai
Featuring unreleased research material and film footage from Gitai’s archive and collected over the course of the last twenty years, the exhibition’s central piece is a new video installation with a performative element commissioned by SAVVY Contemporary questioning the shifting concept of democracy and addressing the problem of extremisms and the current crisis of politics.
Resonating with the structure of the film, his installation is a whirlwind of discourse surrounding the terrible and confounding act of violence that took place in Tel Aviv, while also becoming a metaphor of the consequences of a polarized and poisonous atmosphere of political extremism. The Law of the Pursuer shows how inflammatory and fundamentalist language can instill violence and sow the seeds of brutality, it is an examination and a psychoanalytical portrait of a traumatized political context and society speaking to the one we are living in today.
Crew
| Director | Amos Gitai |
| Commissioned by | SAVVY Contemporary |
Additional information
Amos Gitai
The filmmaker was born in Haifa, Israel. He made his debut feature-length film in 1980 with the documentary House and has since directed numerous films that have brought him international recognition and have been invited to festivals including the competition at Cannes and the Venice Film Festival. His work has featured at the Berlinale in the Forum several times since the 1980s; his feature film One Day You’ll Understand screened in the Berlinale Special section in 2008 and, most recently, Law of the Pursuer was presented in Forum Expanded. He also works as a theatre director and has designed installations and exhibitions in many international museums.
Filmography (selection)
1972 Arts and Crafts and Technology; short film · Details of Architecture; short film · Black Is White; short film · Textures; short film · Geography According to Modern Man and His Control of the Environment; short film · Souk / Dialogues de femmes; short film · Windows in David Pinsky no.5; short film · Souvenirs d’un camarade de seconde Aliya; short film · Waves; short film 1973 Fire Eats Paper, Paper Eats Fire; short film · Talking About Ecology; short film · Shosh; short film 1974 Arlington USA; short film · Images of War 1, 2, 3; short film · Images After War / Après; short film · Water; short film · Memphis USA: Faces; short film · Memphis USA: Suite; short film · Pictures in the Exhibition; short film · The International Orthodontist Congress; short film · Blowing Glass; short film · Lucie; short film 1975 My Mother at the Sea Shore; short film 1976 Charisma; short film 1977 Dimitri; short film · Border; short film · Political Myths; short film · Public House; short film · Singing in Afula; short film · Under the Water; short film 1978 Architectura; short film · Wadi Rushmia; short film 1979 Cultural Celebrities · Wadi Salib Riots 1980 In Search of Identity · House 1981 American Mythologies Part 1: Rituals · American Mythologies Part 2: Elsewhere (aka Selling Time) · Wadi; short film 1982 Field Diary 1983 Pineapple 1984 Bangkok-Bahrain / Labour for Sale · Reagan: Image for Sale 1985 Esther 1987 Brand New Day 1989 Berlin-Jerusalem 1990 Birth of a Golem 1991 Wadi, Ten Years After · Golem, the Spirit of Exile 1992 Metamorphosis of a Melody 1993 In the Valley of the Wupper · Queen Mary '87 · The Petrified Garden · The War of the Sons of Light Against the Sons of Darkness 1994 In the Name of the Duce · Give Peace a Chance 1995 Devarim 1996 The Arena of Murder · Milim · Munio Weinraub Gitai Architect (1909-1970); short film 1997 War and Peace in Vesoul · Kippur, War Memories 1998 Orange · A House in Jerusalem · Zion: Auto-Emancipation · Yom Yom 1999 Kadosh 2000 Kippur 2001 Wadi Grand Canyon 2001 · Eden · Surgeon General’s Warning; short film 2002 September 11 – 11'09''01; short film · Kedma 2003 Alila 2004 Promised Land 2005 Free Zone · News from Home / News from House 2007 Disengagement · The Dybbuk of Haifa; short film 2008 Plus tard, tu comprendras... (One Day You’ll Understand) 2009 The War of the Sons of Light Against the Sons of Darkness · Carmel 2010 Roses à crédit 2011 Lullaby to My Father 2012 The Book of Amos 2013 Ana Arabia · Architecture en Israël : conversations avec Amos Gitai 2014 Tsili 2015 Rabin, the Last Day 2016 Reflections on Architecture 2017 The Law of the Pursuer 2024 Shikun
Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2024