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TV review
No pomp, just facts: The docu-on Castiel is the most important work on television right now
"After Midnight" (yes docu) is a shaky docu not only because it helps to exhaust the law with cruel validity, but also because it brings back to the agenda the discourse on this disgusting phenomenon in which Castiel only took part.
He also puts a finger on the psychological mechanism that allows criminals like him to act unhindered
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Alon Kastiel
Ofir Sagarsky
Friday, March 12, 2021, 00:00
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The "what" is no less important than the "how".
From "After Midnight" (Photo: Matan Ackerman, courtesy of yes Docu)
You can't judge a docu like "After Midnight: The Best-Kept Secret in the City" (yesVOD and Sundays-Tuesdays at 10pm on yes docu), as a TV show only.
Something bigger than that is happening here.
As a documentary for the Castiel affair, the work is of immense importance.
It can mediate the events to the audience in a better or lesser way, but in this case the "what" is no less important than the "how".
I would like to say that even if it was not a particularly successful television work and even if it consisted only of a sequence of coarsely pasted texts - it "enjoys" the benefits inherent in it.
This is evidence of one of the extreme serial sexual crimes exposed here, and has been enhanced to the voices of the victims, many of whom were not allowed to make their voices heard in court.
In fact the commemoration of the incident also exhausts a bit more from the proper sentence of the serial sex offender who was sentenced to four years and nine months in prison, and the rape offenses were eventually removed from his indictment.
From the first minutes, it is clear that "After Midnight" also excels in "How", when it seduces us inside with dim lights and techno sounds, a reminder of the intoxicating atmosphere of the nightclubs in Tel Aviv.
This introduction is important;
To understand the story of Castiel, one must first understand the nightlife.
"At midnight, like an inverted Cinderella - the order is not restored, but the order is undermined," describes with great talent the journalist and DJ Niv Hadas, one of the most prominent and interesting voices in the three-episode series.
He is joined by interviewees and other interviewees who describe the magic of nightlife.
Their testimonies are mixed into a manifesto justifying blabbering, and perhaps it would be more correct to say: justifying women who spend time.
In Israel, Ephesus, there is not much tolerance for women going out to parties.
It seems that the creators of the series, Mika Timor and Keren Shayo, also understand that in a few moments the average viewer will have the following questions: "Well, what did they think of themselves going out alone at night?", And also, "Maybe they were looking for it?".
"A club is your protected space," Hadas explains.
"The place where you can be who you want to be, without being judged."
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Blurred the minds of the victims.
Castiel (Photo: Meged Guzni)
It is this paradox that drives everyone's nightlife forward - a sense of protection alongside utter lawlessness.
The feelings are not contradictory, but go hand in hand, nourishing each other.
As a woman, nightlife offers me a place where I can be a "slut".
I am finally allowed to express my sexuality in an unrestrained dance and maybe even in bed, at the end of the night, with a beautiful guy.
All this does not mean that I offer myself to sleep with anyone, certainly not without consent.
As Ofri later explains, from Castiel's victims: "I may have slept with the whole world and his sister - but I did not want to sleep with you."
This essential difference, between sexual liberation and sexual coercion, many in Israeli society still do not understand, so it seems important to draw this boundary as an introduction to the story itself.
Between interpretations, the evidence begins to flow, against the background of delicate electronic music, bouncing at the same time as it bodes ill.
One by one, the victims describe empty spaces in memory, snippets of pictures, the single flashes left in their heads following the rape drug that Castiel injected into their drinks before he carried out his plot in them.
In the background, a glowing disco ball blurs and blurs, an image of the shimmering promise he offers to the club's partygoers and perhaps also to Castiel himself, as the great, beloved, successful, polite and privileged man of the world.
In an excerpt from an interview with "Laisha" presented in the series, he even defines himself as a "definite feminist."
With these words, like a drug, the minds of the victims blurred.
With the help of their stories, the harsh graphic reports, and the vague images that recur, the specific pain unique to victims subdued by a rape drug is sharpened.
Strong, successful, opinionated women became, in a matter of moments, an empty shell.
Not only was any judgment or objection taken away from them, but the memory of the incident was also robbed from them.
It is difficult to think of other, so severe, forms of stripping oneself of oneself.
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The stage becomes vacant for facts.
"After Midnight" (Photo: Matan Ackerman, courtesy of yes Doku)
Those who provide another fascinating angle on the story are Castiel's partners in running the block club in Tel Aviv.
These help us to gauge the dimensions of the bond of silence between club owners, and to learn how such a bond lasts for many years.
With his money, Castiel bought not only his share of the clubs, but also the silence of his colleagues.
Some knew little, some more, some preferred not to see - but it was clear to everyone that something about Castiel's attitude towards women smelled very bad.
And yet, they preferred to remain silent.
Owners of other clubs prefer to remain silent until now.
Through these testimonies, "After Midnight" walks a simple, chronological walk, throughout the story.
Her artistic language neither takes over nor strives.
Unlike "Shadow of Truth", which was also produced by Timor and "Egg Eye Productions" and was accused at times of conceptual takeover, here the stage is set for facts, testimonies, a story.
Giving up some dramatic effects sends a message of confidence in the power of the story alone, without having to overshadow it with a visual load.
There is something beautiful about this minimalism and the reliance on individual, repetitive elements, throughout the story that carries within itself a disgusting repetitiveness.
However, repeating the same sounds and sights is also exhausting at some point, and greater diversity in the visual images or their development could have propelled the effectiveness of the story one step further.
This small drawback is eliminated compared to the achievements of "After Midnight", which manages to touch one after the other on all the issues that arise from the awful story at its center.
In interviews with journalist Sharon Sporer, the first to expose the affair in the media (on the website "The Hottest Place in Hell"), the power of the media and the media today is condemned in the face of such injustices.
Where we do not have the mental strength to stand in court or in a police confrontation, it has been argued, the public court can stand by us.
In moments like these, I would not judge this court badly.
Castiel's investigation marked the beginning of a revolution, and demonstrated to us how in an instant the power can return from the hands of the rich, great, familiar, beloved assailant - into the hands of the victims.
All this does not correct the terrible injury inflicted on them, and will probably marry in white for the rest of their lives.
Docu is important.
Castiel (Photo: Tal Englander)
The words of Yael, the police investigator who handled the case, shed light on the criminal proceedings' handling of sexual assaults, its disadvantages and advantages, and especially the unimaginable mental strengths it demands from the complainants.
On this occasion, no less than 17 brave women who dared to approach the police station one after the other shortly after the publication of the investigation should be saluted to the complainants.
Among them, it is worth mentioning Irad Marciano Zeiger, the first to flood the subject on the net via a post she posted on Facebook, and without her there probably would not have been an exploding affair at all.
It is the activism of the complainants and their willingness to be exposed in the media at one stage or another in an open face that sets the Castiel case apart.
Unfortunately, the crime itself - attempted rape using a rape drug - is no stranger to our culture.
Castiel's story received special public attention thanks to the speed with which the injured women came out with open faces and "transferred the shame to the attacker," as Sharon Sporer put it.
This element is also the most unique in "After Midnight," which is rich in detailed testimonies from rape victims, identities and visible faces.
All of these make "After Midnight" the most important docu you will see in the near future.
Not only because he helps a little more to exhaust the sentence with a cruel force whose sentence has never been exhausted, but also because he returns to the agenda the discourse on this disgusting phenomenon in which Castiel only took part.
He puts his finger wisely and painfully sharply on the psychological, professional and sociological mechanisms that allow serial sex offenders like Alon Castiel to continue to operate for years unhindered.
Hopefully, the impact of this document will not end in encouraging discourse and awareness.
It is time to reopen the "One in One" database, which promoted, among other things, the struggle against Castiel.
It's time to also clear up classic, outdated and moldy victim accusations, like "why did you drink" and "what did you think would happen".
It is time to abandon them in favor of more egalitarian thinking, which also accepts women as legitimate partygoers, who do not deserve punishment for their love of nightlife.
And maybe maybe maybe, someday, the legal system in Israel will be educated to re-learn, fundamentally, how to deal with sexual crimes.
Maybe one day the shame will really take effect.
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