Incitement

Based on true events, Incitement follows Yehuda Nahari Halevi’s Yigal Amir as he grows increasingly concerned about the prospect of peace in Israel and subsequently prepares to take drastic action. Filmmaker Yaron Zilberman delivers a slow-moving yet often engrossing narrative detailing the central character’s growing radicalization, with the single-minded focus on Amir’s crumbling mental state paving the way for several impressively gripping sequences. It’s clear, too, that Zilberman does an effective job of weaving in the real-life elements of the story, and although the picture does begin to drag in its second half (ie there’s a sort of get-on-with-it-already quality to certain stretches), Incitement builds to a tremendously tense finale that ensures it ends on a memorable note.

*** out of ****