Forever Pure – TIFF 2016 – Episode 214

Maya and I talk about her important new film Forever Pure, racism, religion and hate, Israel, the cost of remaining silent, and politics as sport.

Forever Pure recently premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. For more information about the festival go here.

Synopsis

Beitar Jerusalem F.C. is the most popular and controversial football team in Israel, the only club in the Premier League never to sign an Arab player. Midway through the 2012-2013 season, a secretive transfer deal by the owner, Russian-Israeli oligarch Arcadi Gaydamak, brought two Muslim players from Chechnya.

The deal inspired the most racist campaign in Israeli sport that sent the club spiralling out of control. One season in a life of this famed club is a story of Israeli society, personal identity, politics, money and a window into how racism is destroying a team and society from within.

Biography

Maya Zinshtein is an Israeli filmmaker and journalist, who emigrated from Russia during her childhood. She now lives in Tel Aviv.

She holds a BA in Cinema and French studies, and an MA in Security and Diplomacy from Tel Aviv University. She has produced documentaries, includingThieves by Law (by Alexander Gentelev, ARTE/ZDF), the inside story of Russian Mafia, and Operation Successor (By Alexander Gentelev, Channel 1, Israel), about the 2008 presidential elections in Russia.

For years as an investigative journalist (Haaretz newspaper) she covered many of the ills of Israeli society and directed investigative stories for Israeli channels.