Good Morning, Gaza - a new Israeli TV documentary about the war in Gaza

Good Morning, Gaza is a hard-hitting documentary film, directed by Hanan Brandes and Matan Sacofsky, which premiered at the Jerusalem Film Festival this week.

Similar to its namesake (Good Morning, Vietnam), the film is mostly made up of radio or podcast interviews and broadcasts, edited with tons of visuals of raw footage from combat and from the destruction in Gaza.  The film is about normal reserve soldiers, especially in the tanks, serving in Gaza, during the first 2 months of the war, following October 7^th. 

The Robin Williams character is Or Brandes, a reserve tank driver. Since he gets bored sitting in his seat waiting for something to happen, he begins to broadcast an improvised podcast to his fellow soldiers.  Nothing is left unsaid.  The soldiers talk about every subject.  There is a lot of charm and humor, and much sadness.

The soldiers talk about their fears, their experiences at the Nova and the friends they lost at Be’iri, they talk about people they know who have been taken hostage, they talk about issues of morality and revenge, and about combat. Our “talk show host” successfully talks one soldier through a crisis when he says he’s losing it. And they tell funny stories about their children and they joke around. 

With no spoiler intended, I want to say that the end of the film is a real knock-out.  These are real people, mostly reservists, who sacrificed so much during this war.

Good Morning, Gaza (documentary, 52 minutes) was produced by Lama Films for broadcast on Yes Docu. Watch for the Yes broadcast on Israeli TV during the coming months.

During the roll of credits at the end of the film, it is stated that some of the soundtrack was reconstructed by AI.  I suppose we are going to see more and more of that during coming years.

Red Alert - a new TV series about the events of October 7th

Red Alert, directed by Lior Hefetz, is a heart-rending television drama series, produced by Keshet channel 12 in Israel and currently streaming on Paramount+.

Based on actual events and personal stories, this series tells the painful story of the Hamas invasion of southern Israel, the massacre of civilians, and taking of hostages on October 7, 2023. The story unfolds like a thriller – compelling, distressing and so-very realistic with in-depth characterizations. For some, the story is still too raw and watching this series might be too difficult.  For others, it will provide just what is needed to process the terrible events of that day.

There are four parallel stories.  There is a family living in Nir Oz – parents and three children.  They can’t lock the door to their safe room and they are shivering with fear as they hear the nearby shouting and shooting and read the messages on their phones from their neighbors. There is the couple who are both police officers.  The wife, Nofar, is working at the Nova festival.  Her husband, Kobi, is trying desperately to save her. Itamar is a combat soldier, who runs out of his home in Ofakim to help defend his neighborhood against the terrorists.  Meanwhile, his middle-aged mother, Tali, begins to bravely ferry the wounded to an evacuation point.  Ayub, a Muslim from Gaza, living in Israel, is driving in his car with his wife and infant son.  When the terrorists shoot at his car and his pregnant wife is killed, he runs with his baby and hides in a roadside shelter.

These are stories of heroism and sacrifice.  A father willing to sacrifice to protect his family.  A husband willing to run into battle to rescue his wife.  A middle-aged woman taking risks trying to evacuate the wounded. An Arab man running to warn the IDF troops of terrorists waiting in ambush.

Almost 1200 people were slaughtered that day.  And close to 250 were taken hostage.  These are real stories which will help us to enshrine the memory of that day.  They will bring tears to your eyes.

 

A Documentary about the Druze living on the Golan Heights -- Living between a Rock and a Hard Place

Together with my husband, Ron, I went to see On Thin Ice at the premiere screening at the Jerusalem Film Festival. This review is by both of us. 

If you have seen Syrian Bride, by Eran Riklis, then you know that the Druze on the Golan Heights are living between a rock and a hard place. The scene where the bride sits at the border fence, unable to leave Israel and unable to enter Syria, is a perfect metaphor for the contemporary situation of this community.

On Thin Ice, directed by Udi Kalinsky and Irit Hod, is a documentary film about the Druze living on the Golan Heights which was occupied by Israel after the Six Day War in 1967.  The area has been annexed to Israel since 1981 and the Druze who live there are encouraged to accept Israeli citizenship.

There are many issues that the Druze community of the Golan Heights faces.  One of them, not mentioned in the film, is taking place right now – the dangers that their Druze brethren are facing in Syria at this very moment.  At the premiere screening at the Jerusalem Film Festival this week, filmmaker Udi Kalinsky stated, “We pray with the community for the well-being of their brethren in Syria.”

Members of the Druze community who live in the northern Golan Heights have a complicated identity. The older generation feels that they are still “Syrians” since they were born in Syria and have many family members who still live on the other side of the border. On the other hand, the younger generation seeks to become integrated within Israeli society, and even to accept Israeli citizenship, for practical reasons, like passports for traveling, not for love of the Zionist state.  This complicated identity crisis is at the heart of this excellent film, which explores this issue carefully and sensitively through very well-done character portrayals.

The film was made over a three-year period.  In 2022, Aya is a 19-year-old Druze woman, playing ice hockey with a women’s team in Metullah.  She eventually progresses to the national team and is chosen to be a part of the group that will represent Israel at the upcoming international championships in Serbia.  The only complication is that Aya does not have Israeli citizenship and is not permitted to represent Israel unless she obtains Israeli citizenship and an Israeli passport.  Her father, Akram, is against her accepting Israeli citizenship but he puts the decision in her hands.

Her uncle, Ayoub, is clinging to his Syrian history, culture, and identity while intermingling with Jews all over the Galilee. He takes the filmmaker to meet many people in Majdal Shams to ask them about their identity. Ayoub is very concerned about the future of his town and about their identity crisis. In one very moving scene, he is holding his young granddaughter while watching the news and he wishes a better future for her than the bitter reality of the present.

Then the Israel-Hamas and Israel-Hezbollah wars break out in October 2023 and rockets from Lebanon are falling very close to Majdal Shams. In 2024 a Hezbollah rocket landed on a playground and killed 12 children in the middle of Majdal Shams, which was one of the greatest tragedies in this war, and which paradoxically connected this Druze community with the fate of the citizens of Israel, much more than they would have expected.   One of them was Ayoub’s 12-year-old grand-daughter.

In his speech at the Jerusalem Festival premiere screening, Ayoub –- who was very impressive both in the film and on the stage as a serious community leader -- pleaded for an end to the violence, an end to the ongoing war, and an end to the bloodshed.  His speech was inspirational as was this film, which portrayed a very complex issue in a sensitive and substantive way.

On Thin Ice (documentary, 92 minutes) is available from Hadar Porubanova at Ruth Films,  hadar@ruthfilms.com

 

The Story of the Massacre at the Roadside Shelter on October 7, 2023

The Last Recording (Hebrew title: Death Shelter: The Last Recording), by Assaf Liberman and Nadav Ben Zur, is about a terrible massacre that occurred at a roadside shelter near Kibbutz Re’im on that terrible day, October 7^th, 2023.  A number of young adults in their 20s who had been at the Nova music festival, fleeing for their lives, took refuge in this shelter.  Of the 40 or 50 who took refuge there, only 11 survived, of whom 4 were taken hostage by Hamas terrorists. 

Viewers consider yourselves warned -- the film is shocking and difficult to watch.  It is based on a cellphone recording made by Ayelet, who was killed that day.  The sounds, the whisperings, the shooting are all authentic and so hard-hitting.  There is also visual footage of the young people all huddled together, all so very real.  The film includes interviews with the survivors, telling the story of what happened that day, and with the parents of those who were so brutally murdered.  The interviews are conducted, in an extremely sensitive manner, by Assaf Liberman, a radio talk show host for Reshet Bet.

Osama, a Bedouin man from the Negev who was working on the security team for the Nova festival, was trapped in the shelter with the others.  When he stepped out to try to reason with the terrorists, he was grabbed and killed. 

Here is the story that so many people have heard – the terrorists threw grenades into the shelter and Aner, who loved the dancing and was a soldier, bravely kept picking them up and throwing them back out.  He was a true hero.  The footage of the goings-on outside the shelter is from a dashcam, also so very real and authentic. From that footage we can see the grenades exploding outside.  Eventually, the terrorists threw a grenade deep inside and some people, including Aner, were killed.  This is when Hersh Goldberg-Polin lost his hand.  Then the terrorists grabbed four of the people inside and took them away as hostages.  Hersh was one of them (only to be executed later by the terrorists while in captivity).  Also, Alon, who loved to play piano, was taken hostage. 

Finally, the terrorists came back in and shot at everyone, just to be sure. 

The survivors, beautiful young people, today are dealing with the trauma of what they experienced and the fact that they survived. They laid there that day for hours, wounded and traumatized, weeping, waiting for help, waiting to be rescued.

The Last Recording (documentary, 60 minutes) is available from Go2Films. 

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.