Film

The Gatekeepers

Ari Folman's documentary gives voice to six former leaders of Israel's Shin Bet, who discuss decades of counterterrorism work with uncommon candour. They interrogate their own methods, moral costs, and the question of whether security justified the price paid. Sober, rigorous, occasionally haunting—for viewers ready to sit with complexity.

TMDb rating3.5

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you are drawn to talk-driven documentaries where hard-edged former officials argue candidly about morality and compromise, and you want to hear their reasoning rather than a verdict.

Skip it if you want dramatized scenes or a propulsive plot, since this is talking heads recounting decisions, and its moral debate can feel circular across feature length.

What it asks of you: Expect a steady, unhurried pace of measured testimony, and sustained attention to follow dense security history while weighing uncomfortable moral questions yourself.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

First They Killed My Father2017

Documentary exploring an American atrocity in Vietnam, told by those who lived it and those who investigated it. Examines how institutional pressure can erode moral boundaries, with the same unflinching focus on complicity.

But Deeply disturbing imagery and testimony. The pace is slow and deliberately unglamorous; it demands patience and emotional endurance.

First They Killed My Father poster

The Fog of War2003

Errol Morris interviews Robert McNamara about his role in Vietnam and the Cold War. Like Gatekeepers, it's a portrait of a man reckoning with power, consequence, and the gap between intention and outcome.

But McNamara's reflections can feel evasive to some; the film doesn't always press as hard as viewers might want. Also quite cerebral and dialogue-heavy.

The Fog of War poster

Four Lions2010

Chris Morris's dark comedy about incompetent British jihadists. Humanises people we're taught to hate, forcing viewers to sit with uncomfortable laughter and sympathy—a very different approach to the same moral territory.

But The humour is genuinely unsettling and could feel trivialising to those affected by terrorism. Some find the tonal shifts jarring.

Four Lions poster

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Gatekeepers

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

The Master2012

Both are studies of how intelligent, articulate men build philosophical frameworks to justify their actions. Both trust the audience to read moral complexity without guidance.

Paul Thomas Anderson's film is about belief systems, power, and how charismatic men justify control over others. Not a documentary, but it inhabits the same psychological space as Gatekeepers—exploring rationalization, loyalty, and complicity through close observation of face and voice.

But Extremely long, oblique, and formally demanding. There is no plot in the conventional sense. Anderson's direction can feel cold and alienating rather than warm.

The Master poster
More like this (6)

A Ghost Story2017

A haunted meditation on loss, time, and the weight of the past. Like Gatekeepers, it's concerned with how history lives in us and how we can't escape what we've done—but through intimate, poetic rather than documentary means.

But Deliberately slow and oblique. The ghost's face is covered. If you want narrative momentum or clear answers, you won't find them here.

A Ghost Story poster

The Act of Killing2012

Joshua Oppenheimer's extraordinary film gives accused Indonesian death-squad leaders a chance to re-enact their crimes. Explores how memory, mythology and denial protect perpetrators from conscience—radically different method, same moral question as Gatekeepers.

But Watching men celebrate atrocities is nauseating by design. The film is long, structurally complex, and disturbing in ways that linger.

The Act of Killing poster

Winter on Fire: Ukraine's Fight for Freedom2015

Documentary about the 2013–14 Euromaidan protests. Shows security forces and civilians in conflict, letting both speak. Examines how states justify violence and how ordinary people resist it.

But Less introspective than Gatekeepers; the state actors don't reflect the way the Shin Bet heads do. Some find the narrative too clearly sides with the protesters.

Winter on Fire: Ukraine's Fight for Freedom poster

Cartel Land2015

Matthew Heineman follows vigilante groups in Mexico fighting drug cartels, and the cartel members themselves. Raises hard questions about who gets to define security and justice when the state fails.

But The film doesn't condemn or endorse; some viewers find this refusal frustrating. Violence is graphically shown. The narrative threads are loose and overlapping.

Cartel Land poster

The Eichmann Show2015

Both films centre on how societies confront and attempt to process state violence after the fact. Both ask: what does it mean to ask someone to account for what they've done?

About the 1961 trial of Adolf Eichmann, filmed for television. Examines how a courtroom becomes a space where atrocity is documented, narrated, and—crucially—broadcast to a public who must decide what to make of it. Questions the role of spectacle in reckoning with history.

But Slower than a thriller, more interested in procedure than drama. The Holocaust is the backdrop; if you want narrative catharsis, you won't find it.

The Eichmann Show poster

Waltz with Bashir2008

Same director, same Israeli-Palestinian context, same question: how do soldiers and commanders live with what they participated in? Where Gatekeepers is interviews, Waltz with Bashir is memory and dream—two different ways of approaching the same reckoning.

Ari Folman's animated documentary about his own experience as an Israeli soldier during the 1982 Lebanon War, and his repressed memory of the Sabra and Shatila massacre. Uses animation to access emotion and memory that live-action might flatten. Profoundly moving and formally daring.

But Animation can feel inappropriate to the subject for some viewers. The film is autobiographical and subjective rather than investigative. No easy answers about complicity or innocence.

Waltz with Bashir poster

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