“Who Killed Alex Odeh?”
(USA)
Metacritic (7/10), Letterboxd (3.5/5), Imdb.com (7/10), TMDB.com (7/10), Imdb.com critics review
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Admittedly, some crimes are so perplexing that they genuinely defy solution. However, as this documentary from directors Jason Osder and William Lafi Youmans illustrates, it’s also possible for others, such as the murder investigation profiled here, to go unresolved – in this case for decades – either due to a willful lack of diligence or a deliberate unwillingness to examine pertinent clues that could yield answers. In Santa Ana, CA in October 1985, Palestinian-American Alex Odeh, West Coast Regional Director of the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), an organization aimed at combatting stereotypes and prejudices against members of its constituency, was killed when a tripwire bomb exploded when he entered his office. His death left his wife and three young daughters without a husband and father – and a lot of unanswered questions that have persisted ever since. Odeh, an avid activist for his community, worked tirelessly on fundraising, political action, civil rights, media advocacy and legal representation issues for peers who had been discriminated against. He was also an outspoken representative for his people, such as in his defense of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in connection with the hijacking and terrorist attack on the Italian ocean liner Achille Lauro, an event orchestrated and perpetrated by the Palestinian Liberation Front (PLF) in which Jewish American Leon Klinghoffer was killed, an incident that occurred the day before Odeh’s death. However, even though the investigation into Odeh’s murder remains open to this day, leads allegedly ran cold quickly at the time of his death, as did media coverage about his killing. But, as a result of the determined reporting of Israeli journalist David Sheen, a specialist in his adopted country’s right-wing extremism movements after the assassination of progressive Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995, this film led to the reopening of Odeh’s case, tracking down long-assumed suspects and uncovering long-buried evidence potentially connecting them to the crime. Nearly all of this evidence (and its associated coverup) has been tied to extremist individuals and organizations in Israel and the US, such as the late Rabbi Meir Kahane and the Jewish Defense League, with whistleblowers citing alleged complicity from government officials and institutions in both countries. The film thus makes a good case for identifying who was responsible, even if no definitive action has been taken to charge them with the crime after 40 years. To be sure, this offering’s investigation is a complicated one, and sometimes it seems like its findings may be a little removed from the primary thread in this story. Nevertheless, the clues involving the suspects all point back to the incident in 1985, prompting hope for a definitive resolution in what has otherwise been regarded as a potentially purposeful miscarriage of justice. Some might try to contend that this effort is biased in favor of the Palestinian viewpoint in its intent and approach, but, given that the film was directed by a duo coming from both Palestinian and Jewish backgrounds (Youmans and Osder, respectively), that argument innately becomes less credible in and of itself. Indeed, as the picture observes, if as much attention had been paid to Odeh’s death as was given to Klinghoffer’s killing at the virtually simultaneous time of their heinous murders, the solution to Odeh’s case might have long been decided by now. “Who Killed Alex Odeh?,” then, is more than just the title of this movie – it’s also a question that, in the interest of justice, demands an answer, even after all these years.