{"id":614086,"date":"2026-09-12T18:56:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-12T18:56:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/614086\/"},"modified":"2026-09-12T18:56:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-12T18:56:13","slug":"israeli-filmmaker-avi-nesher-our-loves-is-a-film-about-people-not-october-7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/614086\/","title":{"rendered":"Israeli filmmaker Avi Nesher: ‘Our Loves’ is a film about people, not October 7"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2018When something horrible happens to you, you can succumb to the tragedy and get swallowed by the abyss \u2013 to paraphrase Nietzsche \u2013 or you can say, \u2018OK, what do we do now? What do we change?\u2019\u201d said Avi Nesher, whose latest movie, Our Loves, is a beautiful and moving film about ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. It\u2019s suspenseful, sad, and sometimes even funny, the kind of movie that can change the way you see the world \u2013 and yourself. It tells the stories of a group of people \u201cwho think they are having the worst day of their lives on October 6, 2023\u201d and who go on to spend much of the movie fighting to survive the attack that begins a day later.<\/p>\n

Our Loves will have its world premiere on September 13 at the Toronto International Film Festival,<\/a> in the prestigious Centerpiece section. It will then open the Haifa International Film Festival on September 26 and will be released in theaters throughout Israel on October 15, prior to an international release.<\/p>\n

It is Nesher\u2019s 22nd feature film and probably the most anticipated movie he has ever made. He became one of Israel\u2019s leading directors decades ago when he released the now-classic movies The Troupe (Ha-Lahaka) and Dizengoff 99, back-to-back in the late \u201970s. After their success, Hollywood called, and he spent over a decade making genre films there. But he just couldn\u2019t quit Israel and came back in 2001, releasing an extraordinary series of diverse and quintessentially Israeli movies over the last two decades, such as Turn Left at the End of the World (2004) and The Matchmaker (2010).<\/p>\n

Now in his early 70s, he might be expected to be winding down his career, especially after his family suffered a tragedy in 2018, when his son Ari was killed in an accident at the age of 17. His daughter, director Tom Nesher, made Come Closer in 2024, a movie about a young woman who loses her brother that was clearly inspired by Ari\u2019s death, but Nesher prefers to make movies that explore his emotions without delving too closely into his biography. Following his loss, he chose to keep working and made some of the best films in recent years, including Image of Victory, a drama about young people on a southern kibbutz during the Independence War.<\/p>\n

A film about October 7?<\/p>\n

After the Hamas massacre took place on October 7, 2023<\/a>, it seemed obvious to many that Nesher would want to make sense of the tragedy by creating a film about it, although he didn\u2019t quite see it that way at first.<\/p>\n

\"AVIAVI NESHER (left) directs Shalom Michaelshwilli and Magi Azarzar in \u2018Our Loves.\u2019 (credit: MICHAL FATTAL)<\/p>\n

\u201cI was at home, horrified. Horrified,\u201d he said, when I asked him about his experience on that day. \u201cIt was something that couldn\u2019t possibly have happened. It seemed like, somehow, we were getting it all wrong, because this cannot happen. Yes, we can get some missiles shot at Tel Aviv. OK. We can have a few Hamas people penetrating the border. OK. But we cannot have Hamas people inside the kibbutzim. That\u2019s not Israel. That\u2019s not the Israel I grew up in, and it\u2019s not part of my sense of safety living in this country. Hamas people in all those kibbutzim? Unbelievable. People on the roads, people in Ofakim. Oh God, this cannot be happening. And then you go: Where is the government?… No one knew anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

The shock brought back memories for him of an earlier war, in which the IDF and government were similarly blindsided. \u201cI\u2019m a veteran of the Yom Kippur War, so I know about impending doom,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Nesher, who spent much of his adolescence in New York, where his family moved because of his father\u2019s career, and who attended Columbia University, came back to Israel to join the army. He initially served in the elite Sayeret Matkal unit until he sustained an injury and was an intelligence officer when the Yom Kippur War broke out.<\/p>\n

\u201cOctober 7 was even worse, because in 1973, I was a soldier. I had something to do,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In the weeks following October 7, as he reeled in shock along with the rest of the country, it didn\u2019t cross his mind to make a movie about the attack.<\/p>\n

\u201cEarly on… there\u2019s just trying to survive, trying to bounce back, grieving. I know a thing or two about losing dear ones. My heart breaks every day,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The fact that he could empathize so deeply with those who had lost family on October 7<\/a> initially made him feel less, rather than more, inclined to make a movie about it. \u201cPeople asked me if I wanted to make a movie about October 7, and I said, \u2018No, no, no. You can\u2019t make a movie about October 7. It has to be done by historians.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\"SHALOMSHALOM MICHAELSHWILLI, a retired policeman and the father of Liri. (credit: MICHAL FATTAL)<\/p>\n

An unexpected and deeply moving experience soon led him to change his mind, which was connected to the release of his film The Monkey House, a literary mystery\/comedy, a week before October 7. \u00a0It received rave reviews and sold over 100,000 tickets \u2013 until the war broke out and the theaters closed.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I thought: Who cares about that? There\u2019s so much horror around.\u201d Then he got a call from a man from one of the kibbutzim that was decimated in the massacre, who told him he and his wife had bought advance tickets for the movie and had been looking forward to seeing it on the evening of October 7. Housed in a hotel at the Dead Sea following the massacre, he asked if Nesher could bring them the movie and show it there.<\/p>\n

‘My last memory of myself as a human being’<\/p>\n

Nesher was a bit bewildered by the call. \u201cBut then this man said, \u2018It\u2019s my last memory of myself as a human being. The last time I remember myself just living my life, just buying tickets. So, please bring your movie.\u2019 I said, \u2018Of course I\u2019ll get you the movie. No problem.\u2019 And he says, \u2018And I want you to come and talk about the movie.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I said, \u2018This I cannot do.\u2019 Because when I had that awful time, with what happened to Ari, if somebody had talked to me about cinema, I would have slapped him. What the f***? And he said, \u2018No, no, we\u2019re not like that.\u2019 I told him my own story, which he knew, and he said, \u2018No, it\u2019s different. Please come.\u2019 Of course, you cannot say no. I came there, and I went up on stage and apologized. And he said, \u2018Please, Mr. Nesher, let\u2019s see the movie.\u2019 They screened the movie, and they laughed. A lot. And they clapped at the end. A lot. I got up on stage, and it was the longest Q&A I\u2019ve ever done in my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

It ended so late that he stayed over in the hotel and spent more time with them, learning their stories.<\/p>\n

At breakfast, they told him, \u201c\u2018You see these two young people sitting in a corner? They met on October 7. Because he was running, he had no place to go, and she took a chance and opened her mamad [safe room] and let him in. And now they\u2019re a couple.\u2019 They fell in love. Can you imagine? With all this horror and bloodiness, can you imagine? Suddenly you feel these people are trying somehow to regain sanity. They\u2019re trying to grab hold of what\u2019s left. They kept telling me more about the way they got into October 7, more about what they were doing before October 7, than about October 7. And then someone jokingly said there were some people who actually thought October 6 was the worst day of their lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"NOANOA COHEN as Liri, whose own personal pain is engulfed by the national tragedy of October 7. (credit: MICHAL FATTAL)A movie about the human spirit<\/p>\n

This was a lightbulb moment for Nesher. \u201cI said, \u2018Really? Like who?\u2019 Mostly people with severe romantic problems or family problems, they said. \u00a0And I said, \u2018Hmm. That\u2019s interesting.\u2019 I thought maybe I could make a movie not \u2018about October 7\u2019 \u2013 of course, you go into October 7 \u2013 but you make a movie about the human spirit, and especially the Israeli spirit, which ultimately triumphs. Then you can make a movie that will give hope.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause it seemed to me: You think October 6 is the worst day of your life, then you go through the horrible ordeal. You make it out alive somehow. And then you have to rethink all of your life. If I survived this, how do I make it better? It\u2019s a movie about change\u2026 It has to do with a personal, possibly with the national, redemption. Things have to change. I thought that was really interesting.\u201d<\/p>\n

He turned to Emilio Schenker, the CEO of the Israel-based, global entertainment company, SIPUR. \u201cEmilio completely understood the vision, which is rare \u2013 and they hired three wonderful researchers who scouted and found people who survived October 7 who had personal, romantic, parental, religious, and whatever other kind of problems.\u201d<\/p>\n

People opened up to him and his researchers, and he began writing. \u201cMy thing was basically to use only what they told me. Not to make anything up. It\u2019s so interesting, because you make a movie whose first third will play almost like a romantic comedy, and then the sky will fall. Then you have to survive somehow. And then, when you come out, you have to reconsider everything, and you have to appreciate life. You have to say, \u2018Life is a great gift, and I\u2019m here.\u2019 Again, I know about this stuff because this is pretty much what I went through myself, with Ari.\u201d<\/p>\n

Our Loves is true cinema<\/p>\n

Our Loves presents a stark contrast to previous movies and television series that have focused on the attack, which were basically reenactments of the experiences of real people with actors. Instead, Our Loves is a carefully shaped dramatic story, true cinema, that features three-dimensional characters and even some darkly funny moments. It opens at a concert on the night of October 5, 2023, where most of the main characters happen to be, for different reasons.<\/p>\n

These include a religious young woman, Sapir (Daniel Gimpel), who has just been dumped by a guy she hoped she would marry and who has decided to rebel by attending the Nova music festival<\/a>, and who ends up running and hiding with a drug dealer (Leib Levin) who keeps his stash in his underwear. There\u2019s also a retired general, Shabi (Shalom Michaelswilli), who is suing his ex-wife to force her to sell their house, which deepens the rift between him and his children, especially his young adult daughter (Noa Cohen). The latter storyline will remind people of several real-life stories of retired generals who grabbed a weapon and headed south when the attack began, but it has a twist.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis guy was really a son of a bitch. He was a terrible father,\u201d Nesher said. He managed to use this story to insert some comic moments into the film. Many of them involve four hopeless recruits, who have only been in the army a week \u2013 \u201cthe leftovers of the leftovers of the leftovers\u201d \u2013 whom the retired general picks up along the way to help him in his quest.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, in a way, this guy has to become their parent because he has to somehow make them into fighters.\u201d One of the most moving and surprising aspects of the story is how, in the course of schooling these bumbling soldiers, the retired general is schooled as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s easier being a hero than being a human being,\u201d said Nesher. \u201cI don\u2019t mean to downplay heroism. But some of these people were amazingly flawed as human beings. And they did a heroic deed because it was the right thing to do. But then the event changed them… The trick was to make a movie about people caught in a situation, not about the situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eventually, he gave the script to Schenker. \u201cEmilio read it and said, \u2018This is great writing. It\u2019s not a war movie. It\u2019s about people,\u2019\u201d said Nesher. At a later stage, two important international producers, Danny Cohen, president of Access Entertainment, and Fernando Szew, president and head of FOX Entertainment Studios, signed on as co-producers. Moshe Edery, Nesher\u2019s longtime collaborator, also co-produced the movie for United King Films.<\/p>\n

Nesher has made movies about true historical stories in the past, but never before had he done a movie where the majority of the cast and crew had lost friends in the event, and the filming was an emotional roller coaster.<\/p>\n

\u201cInterestingly, in the crew we had two girls who were at Nova. They came to work for us in order to deal with the fear of going back. It was amazing to see them dealing with trauma,\u201d Nesher said.<\/p>\n

While it is hard to discuss specifics of the plot without revealing spoilers, Our Loves ends with a character uttering the line, \u201cI\u2019m not leaving.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked what the line refers to, Nesher mentioned a moment in this character\u2019s storyline but agreed that it could have a deeper significance as well. I asked whether, on some level, it is he who is making this affirmation, especially since he could have stayed in Hollywood and been sitting by his pool today.<\/p>\n

He acknowledged that was true. \u201cObviously, it\u2019s appropriate for this character to be saying this, but this message is my message\u2026 Yeah, I could have stayed in Hollywood and made American movies. Easily.\u201d<\/p>\n

The movie has gotten great word-of-mouth reaction from previews in Israel, and Nesher spoke with anticipation about showing it abroad. It will be the sixth time one of his movies has premiered at Toronto, although a few things will undoubtedly be different this time around.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe great thing about the Toronto Film Festival is that they\u2019ve always stood for great cinematic values. As opposed to other festivals that are about ideology \u2013 if you say the right word, they\u2019ll get you in \u2013 Toronto was always about cinema. They have great taste. They have great people selecting films. I guess they just saw the movie and thought it belonged. That\u2019s why they put it in Centerpiece, which has great movies. I salute these people, and I salute this festival and all the values it stands for,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Israeli movies in the current film industry<\/p>\n

He is aware, of course, that many in the film industry have called for all Israeli movies to be boycotted.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the \u201960s we knew how to protest \u2013 all these great antiwar marches. But they were against the US government. Against Robert McNamara. LBJ, against the Vietnam War… Nobody thought for a second of boycotting Hollywood. Nobody thought for a second of boycotting American literature or American music or Andy Warhol.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nesher is no cheerleader for the Israeli government and spoke openly about his hope that the elections will bring a change in leadership. Noting that at the time of the October 7 attack, about half of all Israelis were fighting to preserve and strengthen democracy against government interference, he said, \u201cAs always, at the forefront of every fight for democracy are people from the arts. So, you want to stay away from movies and culture and handicap the people fighting for democracy?… Either you are really stupid, which I don\u2019t think you are, or there is a tinge of antisemitism in this, because you did not boycott Iranian art. You did not boycott the art of any other country when you disagreed with their government.\u201d<\/p>\n

He knows that there may be protests in Toronto against Our Loves, and he is ready for them. \u201cFor me, this conflict is not about land. The conflict is about story. The conflict is about narrative,\u201d and he is eager to present this narrative to audiences.<\/p>\n

He is also well aware that he is likely to be asked why the story is not told, at least in part, from the perspective of the Hamas terrorists.<\/p>\n

\u201cActually, I got an offer from an Italian producer: If I would do Our Loves like Image of Victory [which features a major character who is an Egyptian photojournalist embedded with Egyptian troops], he would come in with an investment of a million euros,\u201d said Nesher.<\/p>\n

\u201cI told this producer, \u2018Sadly, I cannot do it.\u2019 In Image of Victory, I could write the Egyptian side because the Egyptian side was just like us, only in Arabic,\u201d he said. \u201cBut Hamas is a whole different thing. It\u2019s like ISIS… I would not know how to direct Charles Manson, how to tell his story. \u00a0I just would not know.\u201d<\/p>\n

When it comes to Hamas, \u201cI do not know how to direct people who did these horrible things… I do not understand the guy who gets pleasure out of killing a baby, out of burning families alive. So, I did not take the money. And we made the movie anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n

Toward the end of Our Loves, some characters make it to a hospital, and the doctor in charge is an Arab physician, played by Hisham Suliman.<\/p>\n

\u201cTwenty percent of the population is Arab, and they\u2019re going to remain here, and there has to be a way of making it work,\u201d he said. \u201cThe truth is, it simply wouldn\u2019t be realistic if I showed a hospital in Israel without Arab employees. But beyond that, it makes a point: Let\u2019s not get confused. Arabs are not our enemy. Hamas is our enemy. It\u2019s a whole different thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The more he talks, the more it becomes obvious that he is the perfect director to tell this story right now: An Israeli who is equally comfortable in America, but also an ardent Zionist who cares deeply about what happens in Israel. It\u2019s clear from his personal story that he empathizes with grieving families and can identify with all those who suffered loss on October 7 and since. And he wants to fight back with the most potent weapon he knows \u2013 story.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the beauty of cinema. Cinema gets you to accept a different normal than the one you\u2019ve been told before\u2026 And again, there\u2019s this Israeli spirit, which I have admired since young childhood. I think that\u2019s why we all live in this country even though it makes no sense at all. We\u2019re not going anywhere. We\u2019re not leaving,\u201d he said, echoing his movie\u2019s last line.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u2018When something horrible happens to you, you can succumb to the tragedy and get swallowed by the abyss…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":614087,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1503,43944,85,46,277996,109950,43,48974,58],"class_list":["post-614086","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-culture","tag-culture-in-israel","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-israeli-cinema","tag-israeli-films","tag-news","tag-nova-music-festival","tag-the-october-7-massacre"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614086","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=614086"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614086\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/614087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=614086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=614086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=614086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}