Protocols of Zion

Marc Levin gives us an explosive exploration of resurgent anti-Semitism in the wake of September 11th in PROTOCOLS OF ZION. Levin's film draws its inspiration from an encounter he had in a New York taxi not long after 9/11, in which his driver, an Egyptian immigrant, made the disturbing claim that the Jews had been warned not to go to work at the World Trade Center on the day of the attack. He then said that "it's all written in the book," referring to "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion," a notorious forgery created 100 years ago this year, purporting to be the Jews' master plan to rule the world. Long ago, discredited as a fake, "The Protocols" was a crucial influence on Hitler, and has fueled hatred, violence, and ultimately genocide through the first half of the twentieth century. Levin, the award-winning filmmaker, whose SLAM won the Sundance Grand Jury Prize in 1998 discovered that today, "The Protocols" seem as popular as ever -- they are sold on Amazon and until recently at Wal-Mart; they were just removed from the official web site of the Palestinian Authority; a couple of years ago, a dramatization aired to great success on Egyptian television. Deeply disturbed by this phenomenon, Levin embarks on a personal odyssey to learn more. Armed with his camera and appearing on screen along with his subjects, Levin engages in a free-for-all dialogue with Arab Americans, Black nationalists, Christian evangelists, White supremacists, Kabbalist rabbis, Holocaust survivors, and the founder of the amazingly popular Jew Watch web site. Levin's genuinely curious and sometimes confrontational conversations combine to form a probing and provocative portrait of our so-called modern civilization caught in the grips of a most ancient hatred.