For documentary filmmaker Adam Kamien, there was a very select audience he had in mind when filming Surviving Malka Leifer – Dassi Erlich, Nicole Meyer and Elly Sapper.
As long as these three women felt the film had done their story justice, public perception always came second. And, as Kamien told The AJN, they do indeed feel proud of the finished product.
As many readers would know, Erlich, Meyer and Sapper lifted the lid on abuse by Malka Leifer, the principal of the Adass Israel School in Melbourne. They bravely came forward, not only to pursue justice for themselves but also to speak to the issue more broadly – ensuring sexual abuse survivors know they are not alone and encouraging them to come forward if and when they feel comfortable.
The case against Malka Leifer was broken by this very masthead, when Kamien was employed as a journalist. He has followed the story from the very beginning.
“I just remember the newsroom being abuzz,” he recalled. “As a weekly paper, it can be hard to keep hold of a story by the time we go to press on a Wednesday. Often, these things have already made the rounds. But this was a story that we broke – Ashley [Browne] and Naomi [Levin] broke – and then all of a sudden, everyone wanted to talk to us. It was a big deal.”
Kamien told The AJN that despite getting his start in print journalism, he always wanted to be in film.
“It occurred to me that if they were willing to sacrifice that, then someone had to amplify that message.”
“I never really did the fireman, astronaut thing. I always wanted to be in the film industry,” he said, explaining that the skills in journalism and documentary filmmaking are transferable, so everything he learned while in print, he could use in his filmmaking career.
He went on to explain that the Malka Leifer case was particularly relevant and important to him.
Kamien covered a few of the child sexual abuse scandals while he worked for The AJN, including the Manny Waks allegations against Yeshiva Centre in Melbourne and the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. He explained that given his history with covering these kinds of cases, the Malka Leifer allegations always interested him. And, of course, his quest for justice.
“Social justice has always been important to me, and having seen Manny Waks go through what he went through, sort of speaking out very publicly, and all of the difficulties that came with that, the story of Dassi, Elly and Nicole really spoke to me, because, particularly in a closed community like Adass, speaking out comes with some pretty serious ramifications,” Kamien said. “They chose to do that. And not just for themselves, but to speak to the issue more broadly, and obviously to try to pursue justice themselves. It occurred to me that if they were willing to sacrifice that, then someone had to amplify that message.”
Kamien acknowledged that the women were doing a pretty good job themselves of amplifying the message, but he knew he could help by providing another level of exposure. Surviving Malka Leifer will have its premiere at the Melbourne International Film Festival before moving onto Stan for streaming, which Kamien said allows for a really wide audience.
While Kamien also recognised and appreciated the written information that has been produced about the Malka Leifer case, he said there’s another layer that can be added by using film.
“I think it’s a much more personal medium. And while I’ve been concerned with getting this story out there and amplifying that message as I said before, I think the other thing that documentary allows you to do, maybe better than you can in print or other mediums, is convey a sense of who a person is. And I really hope that people get that sense of who Dassi, Elly and Nicole are, because they’re not defined solely by this incredible thing that they did,” he said.
“And I hope people get to see them a little bit in the way that I’ve been able to … there’s obviously a lot of difficult subject matter. But to me, that’s one of the hopeful things in the film – it’s the people that they are, despite all of this, because of it, who knows? So I hope that resonates with people.”
Kamien and his crew shot with Dassi, Elly and Nicole on and off for around five years. They also spoke to a wide range of people who were involved in some way in the case, including Ashley Brown, former Premier of Victoria Ted Baillieu, and Malcolm Turnbull, among many others. While Kamien said this made for a lot of footage the team had to rifle through to create the final product, it was crucial that they spoke to as many people as possible to ensure they presented the facts correctly.
“Everything has to make sense in the story that you’re trying to tell,” Kamien explained. “Sometimes with documentaries, you have to embed yourself, immerse yourself and let the story find you. I couldn’t even tell you how many people we interviewed. We interviewed people in Australia, we interviewed people in Israel, we interviewed people in Manchester, we interviewed a couple of people in America. It’s a lot. Editing something like this is a tricky process.”
Telling Dassi, Elly and Nicole’s story was always going to be a harrowing experience. It took the women decades, dozens of hearings and an immensely difficult court process but Malka Leifer was found guilty in 2023 of 18 sexual offences – including six counts of rape – with a non-parole period of 11.5 years. The sentence takes into account time already spent in custody, meaning she could be released in 2029.
The incidents however only related to acts committed against Dassi and Elly, not Nicole. The jury found Leifer not guilty of five charges of rape and sexual abuse relating to Meyer. It was a crushing blow for the three sisters who always stood united throughout the battle for justice, which encompassed an international campaign to extradite Leifer back to Australia, following her escape to Israel, lengthy court delays, political corruption and tense diplomatic relations between Australia and Israel.
Kamien admitted that it was a tough process that definitely left a mark.
“I think I said to Nicole not so long ago, that what kept me grounded was that I had the luxury of this perspective that however difficult it was for me in that time, what must it have been like for them?” Kamien explained. “It’s a real focus of the film. Because, yes, there is this kind of elation when you’re lucky enough to seek justice and get it. But the process takes a terrible toll, and we were together in the trenches – myself and the three sisters and crew – through what I’m sure they would describe as some of the hardest moments of their lives.”
Kamien said though that the film does strike a hopeful note as well, saying he couldn’t be more more happy with how it turned out.
“I really hope that people get that sense of who Dassi, Elly and Nicole are, because they’re not defined solely by this incredible thing that they did”
So what’s his ultimate aim? Awareness and behaviour change, particularly in closed communities.
“That behaviour change comes only when people are courageous enough to talk about it,” he said. “For a really long time, there was a culture of silence around all of this. The sisters have done their part in shattering that, and what we’re doing is sort of just an extension of that.”
Kamien finished the interview with the famous quote, saying “sunlight is the best disinfectant”.
“I think that’s absolutely true in this case. These three women sacrificed everything, and not just in the process of kind of going public. But, since they went public, they’ve had to face up to this every single day, whether it was the protracted process of bringing Leifer back to Australia or whether it was the seemingly endless legal proceedings after that to get to where they are.
“They chose the hard route. They chose to face up to this every day. They chose to do it, irrespective of how re-traumatising it was, irrespective of the toll that it took on their mental health, they forged ahead. They did it because they were seeking justice for themselves. But they know that this is bigger than just that. So they were speaking to the world.”
Surviving Malka Leifer will premiere at the Melbourne International Film Festival, before moving onto Stan for streaming.
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