“The Israeli public has gradually promoted me from devil’s advocate to human rights lawyer”, says Lea Tsemel, the protagonist of this powerful documentary. Of course, not all public, as the reaction to Advocate winning the Best Israeli Film at DocAviv shows. No surprises here.
The documentary is centered on two cases where Lea and her colleague Tareq Barghout represent Palestinian defendants. It doesn’t come as a shock that they eventually lose both cases: Tsemel’s victories are are few and far between. That some relatives of the defendants prefer them to be “martyrs” rather to be found innocent frankly does not help. What amazes me is the energy of Lea — “a very angry optimistic woman” as she calls herself although we never see her angry — and her faith in justice in spite of the broken justice system. The film also features archive footage from 1960s on as well as interviews with her husband, Michel Warschawski, and their two adult children, Nissan and Talila.
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