Avi Mograbi's How I learned to Overcome My Fear and Love Arik Sharon (1997) is a personal meditation on the difficulties of political filmmaking as well as a chronicle of the messy logistics of filming Ariel Sharon during the 1996 Israeli elections. We accompany the filmmaker at home and on the road, from comical phone negotiations to a series of political rallies and dinners. In the increasingly unreliable context of the film, a polarizing country parallels the strains within Mograbi's own marriage. A surreal coda, featuring Mograbi dancing and singing with some right-wingers, suggests that Mograbi has been playing a role throughout.
