The Nova Rave

 I was very badly affected by the latest news.  Yesterday was the day that Shirel Golan committed suicide on her 22^nd birthday.  She was a survivor of the Nova festival and she had been suffering from post trauma. Even though I had been putting off watching the film about the Nova festival, I decided that this was the time to pay proper honor to those who died there and those who survived.

We Will Dance Again, directed by Yariv Mozer, is a highly effective and emotional documentary film which describes the trance festival that took place on Simchat Torah, Friday night, October 6^th, 2023. It portrays an event which was full of energy and full of life.  The festival was produced by a company from Brazil and the DJs came from all over the world. More than 3,500 young people attended in the fields outside of Kibbutz Re’im.  The next morning, October 7^th, about 400 of them were slaughtered by Hamas terrorists.

Some of them were artists, some were models ,others were university students, song writers, production staff. All of them were wonderful young adults who enjoyed dancing, loved to be together and celebrate life!  As the sun rose on the morning of October 7^th, they were hit by an attack of extreme evil, and their lives changed forever.  There were rockets everywhere, explosions, sirens, screaming, barrages of rockets, people running, nobody knowing what was happening.  The footage is comprised entirely of cellphone footage and Hamas body cams and even Hamas propaganda footage.  We watch as the bulldozers broke through the border fence in 60 different locations.

The young people tell stories of how they hid in the portable toilets, in refrigerated equipment, in garbage containers.  They were fleeing through the fields, watching their friends being slaughtered around them, bullets whizzing by, hiding in roadside shelters. 

The stories are so emotional.  In one roadside shelter, a local Bedouin goes out to talk to the terrorists and he is murdered right away.  Hersh Goldberg-Polin is in there with his friend Aner Shapiro.  The terrorists throw in a grenade and Aner picks it up and throws it back.  This happens a few times, until finally a grenade explodes inside. Hersh loses his hand and Aner is killed. We all know the story of Hersh, who is kidnapped and later executed by the Hamas in one of their underground tunnels.

The survivors offer their testimonies against the up-close footage from cellphones of friends being slaughtered around them.  The survivors wonder what was happening to their families, thinking that perhaps the entire country was under siege, watching as their friends were kidnapped.  Hours go by and the police and the army don’t come.  There are burnt out cars and the piles of bodies are mounting up.

This is the story of close to 400 murdered, 44 kidnapped, hundreds wounded, and hundreds living with PTSD. This film provides the victims with individual names.  We hear the story of Shani Louk who was kidnapped and later murdered.  Eliyah Cohen who was taken hostage.  Ron Weinberg who was a tech genius and was killed.  And so many more – David Yair Shalom Newman, Gili, Shaked, Avraham, Uria, Forti, Ruth Peretz and her father Erick, Keshet, Sivan, Maayan, and so many more…

We Will Dance Again (90 minutes, documentary) is an extremely hard-hitting documentary film, which tells a story that needs to be told – a tale of those who were murdered, those who were taken hostage, and those who survived -- not a film for the light-hearted.  The film is available from Go2Films.

Uncovering a Police Cover-up

Cause of Death, directed by Ramy A. Katz, is a compelling documentary look at a family’s need to know the truth about how their son died.  This is the story of a Druze policeman who gave his life in the line of duty, and his brother who is desperately trying to understand the true story of what happened that day.

The Israeli Druze community is known for its loyalty to the State of Israel and the men of the community serve in the army and the police.  

In March, 2002, during the 2^nd Intifada, police Sgt. Major Salim Barakat, died trying to stop a terrorist attack at a Tel Aviv restaurant.  Salim was declared a hero and his brother, Jamal, has been attending annual ceremonies in his memory.

Cause of Death proceeds with suspense and takes us along a journey as Jamal considers all the possibilities.  Even though the police consider his brother to be a hero because he made the ultimate sacrifice in protecting people at that restaurant that day, it is not enough for Jamal and his family.  Jamal feels that the trauma lives on, even after so many years, and he needs to know the truth.

In this photo, we see Jamal carrying his brother’s police records and mementos, to his home in the village of Yarka in the north of Israel. 

Jamal suspects that something is amiss in the story that the police have reported to his family.  Did Salim kill the terrorist?  If so, then who killed him?  Since his brother was dressed in civilian clothing, it was not clear whether he was killed by the terrorist or by an armed civilian who saw an Arab and mistook him for the terrorist himself.  Was the security establishment trying to cover up this flagrant act of racism? 

The film tells a fascinating story, 79 minutes, and is available from Go2Films.

The story of a Jewish family -- past and present

Rafting to Bombay רפסודה לבומביי directed by Erez Laufer

In 1940, the filmmaker's father, Nahum, was a child when he fled with his mother from Czanov, Poland, to Italy, where they met up with his father. From there they fled to Turkey, planning to get to Israel illegally. Circumstance led them to Baghdad, where there was a pogrom against the Jews, and then by raft along the Tigris River to Bombay, where they lived for seven years. During the years that the family lived in India, they opened a business and felt comfortable there. They left Bombay and came to Palestine, just before the establishment of the State of Israel.

It is November 2008 and the Laufer family travels to Bombay to revisit the scene of Nahum's childhood and for a reunion with some of his early acquaintances. Having fled from the Nazis to Bombay where they found a safe haven before coming to Israel, they return sixty years later for a visit, only to encounter an Islamic terrorist attack against the Chabad House of Mumbai. In this attack, the Chabad rabbi and his wife were murdered.

This documentary film tells the story of one Jewish family and at the same time, it is an emotional and hard-hitting story of the Jewish people – past and present.

Rafting to Bombay (documentary, 2009, 70 minutes) premiered at the Jerusalem Film Festival (2009) and is being screened this month at Cinematheques all over Israel. It is available from Erez Laufer Films .

“Footprints in the Sand” directed by Ravital Zivan (Shtern)

Is it humanly possible to carry on after losing your entire family? From what source would you draw the strength to continue working, eating, breathing? David Chatuel lost his heavily pregnant wife and four daughters in a brutal terrorist attack in Gush Katif. As a religious man with tremendous inner strength and sensitivity, he believes that while his wife and children were taken from him, he remains on this earth for a purpose. This gives him the determination and the strength to work and to rebuild his life. This is a story of faith, tremendous sadness and great hope.

Footsteps in the Sand עקבות בחול is an extremely touching and even profound film. David Chatuel talks about his wife and daughters, how much he misses them when he comes home from work at the end of the day, how he used to worry about them and they worried about him. His life continues – he has friends who care for him and he has an elementary school to run.

It is the summer of the disengagement from Gaza -- when the Israeli army pulled out and all the Gush Katif settlements were dismantled (summer 2005). The disengagement tore Israelis apart politically and emotionally. It didn’t matter if you supported the settlers in their efforts to remain in their homes, or if you supported the pull-out, you couldn’t help but realize how difficult it is to be uprooted from your home, from your livelihood, from your roots.

On a personal level, David Chatuel finds it terribly hard to pack up the lives of his children and put them into a cardboard box. His sister-in-law, his wife's sister, comes to help him. Piece by piece, the children’s toys, pictures, books are all removed from their shelves and boxed up. Imagine how hard it must have been for David Chatuel to leave behind his home and his memories.

Part of the tragedy of the disengagement from Gaza, or those who lived at Gush Katif, like David Chatuel, and were removed from their homes and resettled elsewhere, is what remains of their homes and memories? They are like footprints in the sand that fade with each passing moment.

Footsteps in the Sand (documentary, 2006, 50 minutes) is available from Hedva Goldshmidt at http://www.go2films.com/

"Cobwebs" by Zvia Keren

I recently came across a compelling, well-documented and extremely hard-hitting film about the human side of the 2nd Lebanon War. This is a film that asks a lot of tough questions. It's not about our troops who didn't get food or water, not about the cabinet decision-making, and not about the massive destruction in southern Lebanon. Rather, this film is a look at how people in the northern Galilee were coping, what issues they were discussing, and how did all this link to previous terrorist attacks in the area.

During August 2006, while the war was raging in the north, documentary filmmaker Zvia Keren journeyed from place to place, interviewing and filming. While missiles were falling, fires blazing, and frightened people were running to shelters, she and her crew continued on their way. The film is narrated in the first person by Keren herself, who was born and raised on a moshav on the Lebanese border.

Using archival footage, she tells the story of the Ma'alot massacre in 1974 -- 22 school children were murdered by a group of terrorists who infiltrated from Lebanon. How could it be that in those days no one fled Ma'alot "under fire", and today, everyone is fleeing the Galilee? Has something happened to the Israeli psyche? What would happen if bombs fell in Tel Aviv, would we keep running, leaving the entire country behind?

The human suffering during the 2nd Lebanon War and the suffering of the Ma'alot attack are deftly mixed together with another story – the story of a 1979 terrorist attack in the northern Galilee. This is where the film becomes personal and particularly compelling. A PLO terrorist band landed in Israel by boat, broke into a home in Nahariyah and abducted Zvia Keren's brother-in-law, Danny Haran (age 28) and his daughter Meital. Meanwhile, Danny's wife Smadar was hiding, holding her hand over her younger daughter Yael's mouth so that she wouldn't make a sound. Not able to breathe, little Yael died. The terrorists took Danny and Meital to the nearby beach and brutally killed them there. One terrorist, Samir Kuntar, was taken prisoner and later was tried in Israel for this shockingly brutal attack. In 2006, after the Hizbullah captured two Israeli soldiers, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, Nasrallah demanded an exchange for Samir Kuntar, who had been sitting in an Israeli prison ever since. But Israel wouldn't trade a terrorist with blood on his hands and wouldn't trade for soldiers who had been abducted. This would create a terrible precedent. And a war broke out.

Raising questions about the past
Keren wonders if we are too humane. Perhaps we should have shot Kuntar right there on the beach, that night back in 1979? She talks with Smadar Haran, the mother of Meital and Yael, both of whom died that night. Till this day, Smadar sleeps in her clothes at night for fear that terrorists will invade her home. She talks with Nina, Danny Haran's mother, and asks if we had traded Samir Kuntar, could we have prevented all this death and destruction? Did he deserve to be traded? In any event, could it have saved lives?

Just last month, on July 16, 2008, in a prisoner swap, Israel traded the terrorist, Samir Kuntar, alive and well, in exchange for the dead bodies of Ehud (Udi) Goldwasser and Eldad Regev. Smadar Haran came to the funerals of Goldwasser and Regev and hugged Karnit Goldwasser, Udi's young widow. How do we justify that exchange after all the death and dying? How many mistakes in judgment have we made?

The title of the film refers to Nasrallah's declaration that Israel was weak as a cobweb. Zvia Keren has a different interpretation – she concludes that we are stuck in a web and the web has become so much more complex than it ever was before.
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Cobwebs, directed by Micha Livne, produced and narrated by Zvia Keren (63 min., 2007) is available for rental and purchase from Ruth Diskin at http://www.ruthfilms.com/

A documentary trilogy by Yulie Cohen

Fact and Fiction -- This week at Beit Avi Chai in Jerusalem, we concluded a five-part film series in honor of "Sixty Years" which included meetings with filmmakers and the screenings of classic films on issues that continue to occupy us as Jews living in contemporary Israel.
Check out other programs at Beit Avi Chai -- http://www.bac.org.il/
My Brother
The concluding event of the series featured acclaimed documentary filmmaker, Yulie Cohen and her most recent film, My Brother (2007), in which she attempts to reconcile with her estranged brother, 25 years after the family was torn apart when he became an ultra-Orthodox Jew. In her particularly personal documentary style, Yulie turns the gaze of the camera inward and focuses primarily on herself, on her own feelings, on her own perspective, as she tells her story and that of her family.

She searches out help in trying to better understand her brother's world. She asks her colleague, filmmaker Naftali Glicksberg, who was brought up in the ultra-orthodox world, to accompany her on a visit to B'nei Brak. Driving around the neighborhood, she thinks she sees her brother on the street. In this emotional moment, she is unable to reach out to him. In her discussion with the audience later, she explained that she was unable to reach out because she was filming the sequence and she didn't want the camera to be the tool that brings about the reconciliation between herself and her brother.

Because she grew up in a fiercely secular home in Tsahalah, Yulie goes in search of more Jewish learning, thinking that this might provide her with some insight into her brother's world. She learns Talmud and establishes a strong bond with Ruhama Weiss, who herself grew up in a more orthodox environment. She writes letters to her brother – letters that go unanswered.

Yulie uses the fact that reconciliation within the family is so complicated to hint at the challenges of reconciliation among Jews and also between Jews and Arabs in the region. Some members of the audience found it difficult to understand why the filmmaker would include a reference to the murder of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in a film about family issues. Yulie, however, discussed this honestly with the audience, talking about the difficulties of family reconciliation even when regret and apologies are offered. If this is so difficult on a personal and family level, how much moreso is this the case on a national and international level. In the case of the assassin of Prime Minister Rabin – he has not expressed regret to this day.
Both the film and the discussion that ensued are extremely relevant today in the face of the decisions that we will have to make as a nation concerning peace and reconciliation both within and without.

This film concludes her trilogy –
My Terrorist (2002),
Zion, My Land (2004),
My Brother (2007).

The First Film in the Trilogy - My Terrorist

Yulie Cohen grew up in Tsahalah, an upper middle class neighborhood of the aristocratic military elite, dreaming of becoming an officer in the Israel Defense Forces. After her army service, she worked for El Al as a flight attendant. In 1978, in a terrorist attack against the El Al flight crew in London, her colleague was killed and she was wounded. Now, years later, married and the mother of two little girls, she is trying to come to terms with that formative experience.
She is also trying desperately to make a difference in the cycle of violence and revenge that have been taking place during her lifetime. She is looking for another way. The logical next step, according to Yulie, is to search out and communicate with Fahad, the terrorist -- or was he a freedom fighter? -- who attacked her and killed her colleague and, since that time has been sitting in prison in the U.K.

As she is establishing communication with the terrorist, she recognizes the fear and hatred around her. She meets a bereaved mother who lost her daughter in a car bombing and who describes the pain of losing a child. In the contemporary reality of suicide bombings, Yulie is afraid of letting her own daughters go out of the house. She recalls the terrible fear that she experienced at the time of the terrorist attack in London and the post-traumatic stress that she suffered as a result.

It is after 9/11. As Yulie is painting the metal bars on the stairs of her home (symbolic of prison bars), she senses that fear is overwhelming her and she realizes the danger of its leading to hatred. Even as she is conscious of the fear, she must consider Fahad's request that she write a letter supporting his parole.

This is a highly emotional film. Some of the emotional moments deal with Yulie’s relationship with Fahad. For example, when Yulie goes to visit Fahad at the prison in England – she looks in his eyes and doesn’t see the hatred that she saw there years ago at the time of the terrorist attack. Yulie describes this moment as choking, no air, she couldn’t breathe, because she was so overcome with emotion. On the other hand, the film provides highly emotional moments when the bereaved mother cries out in pain. Yulie’s relationship with Fahad is one of reconciliation, whereas the bereaved mother only desires revenge.

These are two different world views that are expressed in the same film. The bereaved mother lives in the past with memories of her daughter, dwelling on hate and revenge; whereas Yulie lives in the future, focusing on reconciliation and the future of her own children. This film highlights the difference between choosing past or future. Choosing the future is to choose life.

My Terrorist, My Brother and Zion, My Land are available from the filmmaker, Yulie Cohen at yuliecohen@gmail.com
My Terrorist is distributed in the U.S.A. by Women Make Movies, http://www.wmm.com/

Today in Jerusalem - "As If Nothing Happened"

Just when we were letting ourselves get used to the quiet in Jerusalem, we were hit with another attack today. Right in the heart of our city, a city that could be a city of peace, a city of equality and tolerance. But the harsh reality is so different…

As If Nothing Happened כאילו כלום לא קרה by Ayelet BargurPerhaps the best Israeli film about a terrorist attack is this very hard-hitting and dramatic short film [Israel, 1999, 50 min., Hebrew with English subtitles].

The film is produced on the historical background of the 1995 terrorist attack at Beit Lid -- on January 21, 1995, terrorists attacked a hitching station for soldiers at the Beit Lid Junction. First one bomb went off, which brought large numbers of people running to provide assistance. Then a second bomb went off, killing and maiming even more people. A total of 18 people were killed, all but one were soldiers. Dozens were injured.

The film is not about that attack as much as it is about that single moment with which every Israeli can easily identify -- that moment of fear when everyone worries about their loved ones. The film describes one moment, a moment that is stretched out for the Gonen family and lasts forever. In fact, the ticking and passing of time becomes a metaphor throughout the film – there are different clocks ticking, the ball bouncing, and the wristwatch of the IDF Casualties Officer as he is approaching the apartment. Even though time has not yet run out for Ziv, it becomes clear at the end of the film that he dies a year and a half later in a road accident in the military, and the film is dedicated to his memory.

Synopsis --One sunny Sunday morning in 1995, the Gonen family starts out on its day, like a regular day. Their son, Ziv, an IDF officer in the paratroops, is preparing to return to his unit. Their youngest son, Shai, is getting ready for school. They are a regular family – some tensions, some expressions of love, and the father is having trouble at work. Their daily routine is rudely interrupted when they hear the first report of the terrorist attack at the Beit Lid Junction, where Ziv was supposed to arrive in order to catch his bus back to his base.

Nobody knows exactly when Ziv arrived at the junction, so the father tries to drive there to look for him, but he gets stuck in a terrible traffic-jam. He was supposed to have driven Ziv all the way to the junction that morning, but dropped him at Morasha where he was going to grab a ride to Beit Lid. Angry and scared, the mother blames the father for what might have happened to their son.

Their daughter, Einat, who no longer lives at home, arrives in order to help gather information. Her ex-boyfriend, Oren, also arrives to help out. They call the hospitals and check Ziv’s base, but there is no sign of him. Meanwhile, the television news reports are constantly updating the number of dead and the number of wounded. The youngest son, Shai, returns from school, and voices the thought that everyone else is afraid even to think: “But Ziv can’t be dead”. As the hours go by without any news, the family is living under terrible tension. Is it possible that the worst has happened?

The film is available on DVD from the National Center for Jewish Film at Brandeis University – http://www.jewishfilm.org/