US studio acquires award-winning Israeli documentary about terror attack

‘Death in the Terminal,” an award-winning Israeli documentary about an October 2015 terrorist attack in the Beersheba central bus station, has been acquired in the US by Topic, the entertainment studio of First Look Media.

First Look Media — a three-year-old New York-based media company launched by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar — co-financed and produced the Academy Award best picture winner “Spotlight.” Topic is the company’s new entertainment hub.

Its latest acquisition, “Death in the Terminal,” focuses on the 18 minutes on October 18, 2015, when a terrorist armed with a gun and a knife entered the bus terminal in the southern city and killed a soldier, followed by the lynching of Abtum Zarhum, an Eritrean asylum seeker, who was mistaken by bystanders for the terrorist. Zarhum was also shot by a security guard, and later died from his wounds.

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The film is a tense, minute-by-minute playback of that tragic quarter-plus hour, using surveillance and cellphone camera footage interspersed with eyewitness testimonies from police officers, a falafel vendor, an EMT and several bystanders.

It was directed by Tali Shemesh and Asaf Sudry, two Israeli filmmakers. Shemesh had previously directed two films, “The Cemetery Club” and “White Gold, Black Labor,” while Sudry has won two Ophir Awards for his cinematography in Rama Burshtein’s “Fill the Void,” and “Thirst,” and co-directed several documentaries.

Executive produced by Megan Ellison and Mark Boal, “Death in the Terminal” won top awards at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam and at Israel’s Ophir Awards. It’s been repeatedly commended in the press for its presentation of people doing the wrong thing at the wrong time and perpetuating the cycle of violence and retribution, forcing viewers to think about what they might do in a similar situation.

“This film is a powerful portrayal of how storytelling shifts our perception of people, events and even our own preconceptions,” said Adam Pincus, First Look Media’s executive VP programming and content. “’Death in the Terminal’ is a perfect example of what we look for — it’s provocative, artful filmmaking that challenges us to rethink how we look at the world.”

The US firm is likely to release the movie digitally through Topic rather than via a theatrical release, according to the Hollywood Reporter.