An incisive investigation into the strange, contradictory drivers behind the political and philanthropic relationship of the religious American right and pro-occupation Israel.
Zinshtein’s patient, observant approach catches her subjects in moments of damning irony…
Screened as part of NZIFF 2021
'Til Kingdom Come 2020
Ad Sof HaOlam
Session dates and venues to be announced
Have you ever met someone with a near obsessive passion for another’s culture? ‘Til Kingdom Come dives deep into this discomforting experience as Israeli journalist-documentarian Maya Zinshtein attempts to fathom the whys-and-wherefores of the unusual bonds between fundamentalist American Evangelical Christians and Israeli Jews.
The film spends time with father-son team William and Boyd Bingham, pastors of an impoverished, pro-Israel church community in small-town Kentucky (representative of a powerful United States voting bloc); the Eckstein family-run International Fellowship of Christians & Jews; hardline Israeli settler organisations; and the politicians and lobbyists pushing their agendas.
The filmmakers provide a respectful space for each interviewee to share freely whilst maintaining firm editorial control over the shape of the film’s engaging narrative. The sifting and contrasting of various viewpoints reveals a strange symbiosis between groups who each derive significant benefits (political, financial, religious) from the other, whilst ignoring their ultimately oppositional aims. Without ever overwhelming, Zinshtein’s position slowly but surely solidifies, shrewdly encapsulated in the film’s final moments. — Jacob Powell
“What emerges from the film is not only a disturbing picture of how extremist political and religious agendas are connected, but also a sense of the contradictions involved, including... the dubious question for Jews of getting into bed with the far right.” — Jonathan Romney, Screendaily