 Hi, welcome back to my YouTube channel. This is Daniel Rosel. Yesterday I attended the closing day of the 44th Jerusalem Film Festival or JFF for short. The film festival has been running since 1984 and is both the longest running and most prestigious film festival in Israel. This year's festival opened with a screening of Golda portraying the life and wartime decision making process of Israel's forest prime minister Golda Meir. I personally thought it was excellent. Prisoner X was one of the Israeli documentary films which premiered at the festival. Israel's date according to its IMDB page was July 14th and yesterday was its second screening in Israel. The film is a 106 minute documentary feature produced by Israel based production company Medallia Productions. It was co-directed by Hila Medallia and Amos Robert. Medallia is an Israeli production company which focuses on feature films as well as documentaries, TV shows and commercials. Prisoner X examines the highly controversial life and death of Australian Israeli citizen Ben Ziggir, who was allegedly an employee of Israel's legendary Mossad Intelligence Agency. Ben Ziggir died while in Israeli state custody at the maximum security I alone prison in Ramla in central Israel. Despite the fact that his cell was supposed to be suicide proof, he managed to kill himself. Due to a gag order issued on the case in Israel, he could be identified for a time only as Prisoner X. The Israeli documentary is the first major domestic production to delve into the murky story. It features interviews with the childhood friend of Ben Ziggir who shares memories of their time spent on a kibbutz where Ben Ziggir spent time after immigrating to Israel. Two main interviews are drawn upon to attempt to fill in the gaps in this true story full of cloaks and daggers. The first is a serving senior agent with the Mossad who due to the nature of his work appears in silhouette lighting without revealing his identity. The second is a lawyer who worked as part of the defense team assigned to Ben Ziggir when he was allegedly charged with breaches related to revealing secrets compromising Israel's national security. Australian journalists who were involved with the ABC broadcast report that first shed light on the story also contribute commentary. Israeli journalist and expert on the Mossad run in Bergman also offers insights on the workings of the agency. For those interested in the work of the intelligence community and the Mossad in particular, the documentary will likely make for riveting if ultimately unsatisfying viewing. Viewers are provided with information about Ben Ziggir's alleged service with the agency including his travels between Israel, Australia and possibly Iran that allegedly put him on the radar of three different intelligence services. And here's a spoiler alert so stop watching now if you don't want to know what's revealed in the documentary. At the time of uploading this video, the exact nature of the security offense that led to Ben Ziggir's detention in a maximum security facility has not been publicly revealed. Ben Ziggir's former legal counsel does rebuff the idea that the Melbourne man committed intentional treason while another source corroborates the idea that the alleged spy compromised the identity of a key Mossad acid in Lebanon. However, those who have been following the case carefully since it came to public light in 2013 won't find much here that wasn't already in the public domain. Despite that fact, like most documentaries about the workings of intelligence agencies, the documentary contains plenty of scintillating insights into this cutthroat and murky world. We learn about the Mossads alleged finding of a front company in Italy to supply parts to Iranian industrial facilities, and some details about how the spy agency sometimes targets Jewish immigrants to Israel, especially those with native English and useful passports, to carry out its missions overseas. On a scale of 1 to 10, I would give Prisoner X an 8, even though its lack of a revealing conclusion felt a bit anticlimactic, it contained plenty of intrigue and interest that kept me glued to my seat for its 106 min duration.