A couple of days ago, I saw a remarkable documentary called “Suicide Killers.” This was at a screening intended to help qualify the film for an academy award. The film has already made an early cut in the Oscar nomination process. Because this documentary contains extended and unprecedented interviews with actual suicide bombers, it has already been featured in reports on CNN and FOX News. (The screening was sponsored by EMET.)
Suicide Killers will eventually be released commercially, and it is definitely a film worth seeing. The many interviews with suicide bombers are riveting and eye-opening, but the film is fascinating because it goes far beyond these interviews, to examine the phenomenon of suicide bombing “in the round.” There are fascinating excerpts from Arabic language television, and an even more fascinating examination of the psycho-sexual dimension of suicide bombing. The question of the 72 virgins said to welcome suicide bombers after death is taken very seriously by this film–as seriously as the suicide bombers themselves clearly take it (including female suicide bombers). Like I said, you want to see this film.
There was just one problem at this screening. The audience was supposed to have been addressed by the film’s French director, Pierre Rehov. (You can see Rehov’s website, including a trailer from Suicide Killers, here.) But Rehov was not present. While she did not directly say it, the film’s producer, Lisa Magnas, strongly implied that the French government was holding up Rehov’s visa because it does not want him to support this film. So my question is, where is Pierre Rehov? I call on the government of France to allow him to travel in support this worthy film.