Israeli director looks back 20 years to PM Rabin's assassination

As one of Israel’s most prominent and prolific filmmakers, director Amos Gitai has spent a career chronicling his country’s turbulent history, The Associated Press reports.

In his latest project, the director covers one of its most traumatic days: the assassination 20 years ago of Prime Minister Yiitzhak Rabin by a Jewish extremist opposed to his peace efforts with the Palestinians.

“This is really an important moment in the puzzle I have been constructing for years of the Israeli story,” Gitai said.

The director, who says living in Israel is like “being on the edge of a volcano,” has made both documentaries and dramatic films, but “Rabin, the Last Day,” is a mix. It uses real footage, including grainy images from an amateur video taken on the night of the killing, and interviews with Shimon Peres, the former president, prime minister and foreign minister, and with Rabin’s late widow, Leah, who spoke to Gitai days after the assassination.