‘The Road Between Us: The Ultimate Rescue’ follows an author sharing his story on the fateful morning of Oct. 7, 2023.

Dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters and counter-protesters are gathering outside the theatre where a documentary about a retired Israeli general’s mission to save his family from Hamas is due to screen at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Police on bicycles and horses corralled the crowd outside Roy Thomson Hall, where “The Road Between Us: The Ultimate Rescue,” directed by Montreal’s Barry Avrich, is due to screen this afternoon.

Meanwhile, journalists and talent attending a nearby red carpet ahead of the premiere had to pass through multiple layers of security.

The film chronicles retired Israeli general Noam Tibon’s mission to rescue his family during the attacks.

Last month, TIFF said it pulled the film from its lineup due to security concerns and rights issues, prompting criticism from politicians, Jewish organizations and entertainment industry figures.

The festival reinstated the film days later, pledging clearer communication around its programming decisions.

Protester Emma Chadwick said she doesn’t support the documentary but she’s glad its screening is giving antiwar activists a platform for their message to be heard.

“I feel that in the face of governmental — and other groups such as TIFF, people with high profiles — in the face of their inaction, I feel that what we have is our own action,” she said. “The actions, the protests, the time that we spend raising and raising the issue as the genocide continues.”

The largest professional organization of scholars studying genocide issued a resolution last week saying Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.

Genocide is defined as acts “committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.” The U.N. and many Western countries have said only a court can rule on whether the crime has been committed. A case against Israel is before the U.N.’s highest court.

Several protests calling for action on the war in Gaza have taken place along TIFF’s main strip since the festival began, with demonstrators telling The Canadian Press on Saturday they were concerned that Avrich’s film was “art-washing” Israel’s ongoing offensive in the region.

The team behind the documentary said last month they are not political filmmakers or activists but storytellers.

They added that films are meant to stimulate “debate from every perspective that can both entertain us and make us uncomfortable.”

Montreal native Barry Avrich is shown in this handout photo. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Handout — Toronto International Film Festival (Mandatory Credit) Montreal native Barry Avrich is shown in this handout photo. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Handout — Toronto International Film Festival (Mandatory Credit)

“The Road Between Us” is described on TIFF’s website as a “rescue thriller” in which Avrich combines new interviews with footage from Oct. 7.

Several films by Palestinian filmmakers are also showing at TIFF, including the historical drama “Palestine 36,” which transports audiences to the 1930s, when the territory was under British control, before the creation of the state of Israel.

Hamas-led militants killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted 251 people in their attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, prompting Israel’s retaliatory offensive.

Since then, more than 64,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war in the Gaza Strip, local health officials said last week. The ministry doesn’t say how many of those killed in the war were militants or civilians, but says women and children make up around half the dead.

— With files from Maan Alhmidi, Cassidy McMackon and The Associated Press

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 10, 2025.