JIFF doco strikes balance between Amos Oz’s legacy and daughter’s accusation

NIVA KASPI: The Fourth Window includes Galia’s claims of Oz as an abusive father but does not let the scandal dominate this portrait of the author’s life

IT WAS A film director’s worst nightmare, says director Yair Qedar. Production on the late Amos Oz documentary, The Fourth Window, had wrapped up and the film ready for distribution when a shocking biography by the author’s estranged daughter, Galia Oz, was released. Her book, Something Disguised as Love, portrays the celebrated Israeli author as an abusive, callous father.

The Israeli media flew into a frenzy, parading a daily procession of “expert witnesses”. From old school friends to child psychology scholars, all were eager to contribute to the public dissection of the Oz family. On social media, discussion forums turned into courtrooms.  For a while it seemed as though the Israeli public had split into two camps; those who supported Galia, and those who sided with Galia’s mother, sister, and brother in defence of Oz.  

Qedar called back the film crew - his documentary needed an update.  Six months later, the film – almost three years in the making - was complete. Thankfully, Qedar resists entering a verdict on Oz’s character, striking the right balance between acknowledging Galia's painful postscript and not letting it dominate what came before.  

With biography, as with any history, it is important to ask who is telling the story. Qedar opens the film with a kind of disclosure, by playing a recorded telephone conversation between Oz and his close friend, author and scholar Nurith Gertz.

In this conversation, Oz asks Gertz to write his posthumous biography. He instructs her to write everything she knows, not only the good things, and even lists some unflattering suggestions. Gertz, who later went on to write the biography, provides one of the film’s central “windows” – or perspectives - into Oz’s life.