Watching: A Minor Crime

Overview

With the aid of four actors in a rehearsal room, filmmaker Nur Fibak lays open the police investigation and court proceedings against the man who had molested her, revisiting the case as it unfolded from the moment she decided to seek justice. The film opens a unique window into the workings of the Israeli criminal justice system in sexual offense cases. Behind closed doors, during the cross-examination, everything is permitted, including asking invasive questions, doubting the woman on the witness stand, and forcing her—that same traumatized child, now grown up—to experience a second kind of abuse.