Director Nili Tal/Yehial Yanai
Nili Tal, one of Israel's most prolific documentary filmmakers, passed away at the age of 80 in the Ichilov Hospital, due to complications from pneumonia.
Tal directed close to fifty documentaries, including in the last years of her life, most of them centered on women.
Tal began her career as a journalist at the Haaretz newspaper in the 1960s.
Even then she dealt with issues on the fringes of society, which became her professional hallmark: drug addiction, violence against women and children, murder cases, trafficking in women, crime and poverty.
In the 1970s, she began directing documentaries for Israeli television, in the programs "Mabat Shani" and articles for "Yoman HaShavu".
In 1991 she started producing her films through a company she owns.
As part of this, she interviewed for the program "Ovda" Carmela Bohbot, who killed her husband after years of abusing her.
The interview helped change the Penal Code and later led to Bohbot's release from prison.
In 1998, she directed her first independent film, "Aza Kemovt", which dealt with the murder of Inbal Rogel by her partner.
Tal was able to convince the judicial system to bring cameras into the courtroom, and for the first time brought viewers a rare exposure of the murder trial.
In 2000 she directed the film "Brides from Ukraine" which followed Israeli men who import women from Ukraine and marry them.
In 2003, she directed the film "Murder without a motive" about the murder of Assaf Streiman.
The film was broadcast on Channel 8 but has since been shelved by Tal for fear that it was too blatant.
"The police do a wonderful job, so what if there are holes and mistakes?"
Interview with Nili Tal
Documentary director Nili Tal/courtesy of the family
Tal also directed "Blue and White Bridge" about the collapsed Maccabiah Bridge, "Women for Sale" about the importation of prostitutes to Israel, and in recent years "60 year old looking for love", "Engraved on my body" about the wives of Goel Ratzon and "The Secret of Rose's Murder" " about the girl Rose Pizm and "the rise and fall of Inbal Or".
Her many years of work won her the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Documentary Forum in 2022, and the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Ministry of Culture and Sports in 2023.
Her children, Yaron and Amir Tal, paid tribute to Neely in a conversation with Walla!
Tarbut: "We are saddened by the untimely passing of my mother. She was young in spirit and soul and despite the illness knew how to live life properly. She was a special mother of her kind that we are very proud of, and was a groundbreaking and special creator who did many good things to serve society and the country in the films she created. We are very sad about the sudden manner in which she left. This suddenness may symbolize her and you her special character."
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Neely Tal