The Law of the Pursuer

Forum Expanded 2017

The Law of the Pursuer is an essay exhibition by Amos Gitai revolving around some of the issues and themes raised in his film, Rabin, the Last Day (2015), about the assassination of the Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin on 4 November 1995.
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.

by Amos Gitai Israel 2017

Crew

Director	Amos Gitai
Commissioned by	SAVVY Contemporary

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Amos Gitai

Amos Gitai, born in 1950 in Haifa, Israel, is a filmmaker based in Paris and Haifa, mainly known for making documentaries and feature films dealing with the Middle East and the Jewish-Arab conflict. He holds a degree in Architecture from the Technion in Haifa and a PhD in Architecture from the University of California, Berkeley. In 1973, during the Yom Kippur War, Gitai had to interrupt his architecture studies as he was called up to reserve service as part of a helicopter rescue crew. While serving, he shot 8mm film footage of the fighting, claiming this served as his entry into the world of filmmaking. To date Gitai has created over 90 works of art over 44 years. His work has been presented in several major retrospectives and in film festivals around the world.

Filmography

1972 Arts and Crafts and Technology; 9 min. · Details of Architecture; 13 min. · Black Is White; 4 min. · Textures; 3 min. · Geography According to Modern Man and His Control of the Environment; 4 min. · Souk / Dialogues de femmes; 3 min. · Windows in David Pinsky no.5; 4 min. · Souvenirs d'un camarade de seconde Aliya; 8 min. · Waves; 5 min. 1973 Fire Eats Paper, Paper Eats Fire; 3 min. · Talking About Ecology; 11 min. · Shosh; 7 min. 1974 Arlington USA; 2 min. · Images of War 1, 2, 3; 10 min. · Images After War / Après; 3 min. · Water; 3 min. · Memphis USA: Faces; 5 min. · Memphis USA: Suite; 4 min. · Pictures in the Exhibition; 4 min. · The International Orthodontist Congress; 4 min. · Blowing Glass; 5 min. · Lucie; 5 min. 1975 My Mother at the Sea Shore; 3 min. 1976 Charisma; 18 min. 1977 Dimitri; 17 min. · Border; 12 min. · Political Myths; 30 min. · Public House; 23 min. · Singing in Afula; 15 min. · Under the Water; 18 min. 1978 Architectura; 13 min. · Wadi Rushmia; 36 min. 1979 Cultural Celebrities; 50 min. · Wadi Salib Riots; 40 min. 1980 In Search of Identity; 57 min. · House; 51 min. 1981 American Mythologies Part 1: Rituals; 52 min. · American Mythologies Part 2: Elsewhere (aka Selling Time); 52 min. · Wadi; 40 min. 1982 Field Diary; 83 min. 1983 Pineapple; 78 min. 1984 Bangkok-Bahrain / Labour for Sale; 78 min. · Reagan: Image for Sale; 60 min. 1985 Esther; 97 min. 1987 Brand New Day; 93 min. 1989 Berlin-Jerusalem; 89 min. 1990 Birth of a Golem; 60 min. 1991 Wadi, Ten Years After; 97 min. · Golem, the Spirit of Exile; 105 min. 1992 Metamorphosis of a Melody; 87 min. 1993 In the Valley of the Wupper; 90 min. · Queen Mary '87; 90 min. · The Petrified Garden; 87 min. · The War of the Sons of Light Against the Sons of Darkness; 90 min. 1994 In the Name of the Duce; 60 min. · Give Peace a Chance; 203 min. 1995 Devarim; 110 min. 1996 The Arena of Murder; 90 min. · Milim; 87 min. · Munio Weinraub Gitai Architect (1909-1970); 32 min. 1997 War and Peace in Vesoul; 83 min. · Kippur, War Memories; 120 min. 1998 Orange; 60 min. · A House in Jerusalem; 87 min. · Zion: Auto-Emancipation; 110 min. · Yom Yom; 97 min. 1999 Kadosh; 110 min. 2000 Kippur; 120 min. 2001 Wadi Grand Canyon 2001; 90 min. · Eden; 90 min. · Surgeon General's Warning; 7 min. 2002 September 11 – 11'09''01; 11 min. · Kedma; 100 min. 2003 Alila; 120 min. 2004 Promised Land; 90 min. 2005 Free Zone; 90 min. · News from Home / News from House; 97 min. 2007 Disengagement; 115 min. · The Dybbuk of Haifa; 3 min. 2008 One Day You'll Understand; 90 min. 2009 The War of the Sons of Light Against the Sons of Darkness; 101 min. · Carmel; 93 min. 2010 Roses à crédit; 113 min. 2011 Lullaby to My Father; 87 min. 2012 The Book of Amos; 10 min. 2013 Ana Arabia; 85 min. · Architecture en Israël : conversations avec Amos Gitai; 368 min. 2014 Tsili; 88 min. 2015 Rabin, the Last Day; 153 min. 2016 Reflections on Architecture 2017 The Law of the Pursuer

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2017