The film combines in-depth interviews, archival footage, and computer animation to recount the role that the group played in Israel's security from the Six-Day War to the present.

[4] Moreh has explained in interviews that he was inspired to make the film after watching Errol Morris’s Academy Award-winning documentary The Fog of War.

[5] Having just completed a film about former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon,[6] he came to realize the decisive role that the Shin Bet had played behind the scenes for the past forty years.

From my discussions with the prime minister’s innermost circle of advisors, I learned how the critique of some of these Gatekeepers influenced Sharon’s decision to disengage from Gaza.

Despite this initial difficulty, Moreh contacted one of the "Gatekeepers", Ami Ayalon, who had since been elected to the Knesset for the Labor Party and was serving as a Minister without Portfolio in the Security Cabinet.

Much to his surprise, Ayalon not only agreed to participate, he also helped Moreh contact the other surviving former heads of the Shin Bet: Avraham Shalom, Yaakov Peri, Carmi Gillon, and Avi Dichter.

Shalom, for instance, did not want to discuss his role in the hijacking of the 300 bus and summary execution of two of the terrorists, though the ensuing scandal ultimately led to his resignation.

The Gatekeepers "gave me an unprecedented, intimate opportunity to enter the inner sanctum of the people who have steered Israel’s decision-making process for almost half a century," Moreh has said.

[7] Moreh told The Economist that after interviewing the Shin Bet heads, he decided that Netanyahu "poses a great threat to the existence of the state of Israel."

[7] The producer, Philippa Kowarsky [de], is the founder of Cinephil, a film sales, co-productions, and distribution company, and has taught Media at Israel's Open University and at the Management College in Tel Aviv.

Avraham Shalom, who ran Shin Bet from 1980 to 1986, served on the team that brought Adolf Eichmann to justice and was forced to resign after ordering the summary execution of two terrorists.

When the film was released, CNN reported that the former Shin Bet heads had made "stunning revelations" and that "all six argue – to varying degrees – that the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land is bad for the state of Israel."

The site's consensus reads: "Strikingly stark, brutally honest, and rivetingly assembled, The Gatekeepers offers essential perspective on a seemingly intractable war from some of the men who fought it.

"[26] The Gatekeepers was also named one of the year's best films by David Edelstein of New York Magazine, Bob Mondello of NPR, David Denby of the New Yorker, Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times, Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly, Manohla Dargis of the New York Times, Peter Rainer of Christian Science Monitor, and Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter.

"[20] But Aluf Benn, the editor of Haaretz, wrote in a column that the film is "convenient for the Shin Bet," painting its chiefs as victims of the political leadership and going light on their own bending of the law.

Troy also noted what he called the "outrage gap": while a Jerusalem audience had "reacted viscerally to descriptions of the beating deaths of two Palestinian terrorists," it "seemed blasé about photos of suicide-bombing carnage."

Characterizing the interviewees as "blaming Israel and robbing Palestinians of their responsibility, culpability and dignity," Troy viewed their outspokenness as a product of a "voyeuristic Facebook culture."

Troy argued that "spooks should not speak," expressing doubt that "the past six CIA directors would dare so abuse their positions – and the American public’s trust.