Special Interview

Filmmaker Nitzan Rozenberg's Special Interview profiles Israeli cub reporters Efrat Dotan, who has Down's syndrome, and Matanel Bitton, who has developmental disabilities. Trained by the Association for Mentally & Physically Challenged Children in Israel (SHALVA) and employed in a joint project between SHALVA and Ynetnews, the young journalists have interviewed many prominent personalities, including Israel's President Shimon Peres and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Now the pair have set their sights on Barack Obama. Footage of them at work shows how charming they can be—as when Efrat sweetly elicits Netanyahu's permission to call him Benjamin—but glimpses into their personal lives are less successful; we see Matanel accidentally knock the wind out of a SHALVA volunteer while shooting hoops, and Efrat and her family simply trading accolades. Their self-consciousness can make them seem coached, and part of their campaign to meet with Obama involves the cringe-inducing leafleting of an Israeli marketplace by SHALVA volunteers while the twosome, in matching T-shirts, chant through bullhorns. Efrat and Matanel travel from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv, New York, and finally D.C., meeting several American personalities along the way—but not Obama. Their deep disappointment is hard to watch, and one can't help but feel that Ynetnews and SHALVA have exploited their naïveté when Matanel asks Loews CEO James Tisch if he can't simply telephone the president on their behalf. While the behind-the-scenes material is disappointing, Efrat's eloquence, charisma, and disarming conversational style serve well here to offset stereotypes. Recommended, overall. Aud: C, P. (M. Puffer-Rothenberg)