- published: 17 Feb 2016
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Amos Gitai (Hebrew: עמוס גיתאי), born 11 October 1950 in Haifa, Israel, is an Israeli auteur filmmaker. He is mainly known for making documentaries and feature films, surrounding the Middle East and Jewish-Arab conflict. Between 1999 and 2011 seven of his films were entered in the Cannes Film Festival for the Golden Palm Award as well as the Venice Film Festival for the Golden Lion award.
Gitai was born in 1950 in Haifa to Munio Weinraub and Efratia Margalit. His father was an architect of the pre-war Bauhaus movement in Germany. His parents changed the family name to Gitai. Amos holds a degree in architecture from the Technion in Haifa and a PhD in Architecture from the University of California, Berkeley.
The 1973 Yom Kippur War interrupted his architecture studies as he was called up to reserve service as part of a helicopter rescue crew. While serving, he shot 8mm footage of the fighting, claiming this served as his entry into the world of film making. On his birthday, Gitai's helicopter was shot down by a Syrian missile on the Golan Heights. This experience had a great effect on his life and forms the basis of his film Kippur, an autobiographical depiction of his war service.