Toronto\u2019s finest were out in force, with about 50 officers deployed outside, and had separated the protesters from several Israel supporters \u2014 who waved Israeli and Canadian flags, and whose faces were not covered \u2014 placing the two groups on opposite sides of the street.<\/p>\n
Inside the theater, additional police officers were on patrol, and extra security measures that the festival organizers had in place ended up delaying the film\u2019s start by about 20 minutes.<\/p>\n
At the prestigious Toronto festival, it\u2019s usually the famous actors who get the biggest applause when they take the stage after a showing of one of their films. But at Wednesday\u2019s screening, the stars of the show were husband and wife Noam Tibon and Gali Mir-Tibon, who had arrived from Israel for the occasion.<\/p>\n
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\t\t\t\tBy signing up, you agree to the terms<\/a><\/p>\n Following the sold-out screening at the festival\u2019s largest venue,\u00a0the Tibons received a thunderous, nearly five-minute standing ovation from the 1,800-strong audience as the dozens of protesters bellowed outside the building.<\/p>\n Flanked by Canadian director and documentary filmmaker Barry Avrich, who had made the film, along with producer Mark Shelby, the Tibons were interviewed by veteran Canadian journalist Lisa LaFlamme about the making of the film and its controversy-plagued journey to the festival stage.<\/p>\n \t Retired Israeli Maj. Gen. Noam Tibon and his wife Gali Mir-Tibon attend the premiere of \u2018The Road Between Us: The Ultimate Rescue,\u2019 at Roy Thomson Hall during the Toronto International Film Festival in Toronto, on September 10, 2025. (Photo by Cole BURSTON \/ AFP)<\/p>\n The screening was far from a given. The festival stirred controversy last month when its organizers rescinded their invitation<\/a> for the documentary\u2019s showing, citing copyright concerns over the use of bodycam footage of the October 7 carnage filmed by the terrorists who had perpetrated it.<\/p>\n A TIFF spokesman also told Deadline that the film\u2019s screening was nixed because it had failed to meet \u201cconditions that were requested when the film was initially invited\u201d that were intended to \u201cmanage and mitigate anticipated and known risks around the screening of a film about highly sensitive subject matter, including potential threat of significant disruption.\u201d<\/p>\n The cancellation provoked a massive outcry among people in the entertainment industry, Jewish and non-Jewish, over the censorship of this compelling Israeli story. A petition with more than 1,000 signatures, including from leading showbiz figures, eventually convinced TIFF CEO Cameron Bailey to reinstate the film<\/a>.<\/p>\n \t Illustrative: Toronto International Film Festival CEO Cameron Bailey speaks during the 2025 Canada\u2019s Walk Of Fame Induction Gala held at Metro Toronto Convention Centre on June 14, 2025, in Toronto, Ontario. (Jeremy Chan\/Getty Images\/AFP)<\/p>\n Bailey took the stage alone before the premiere and apologized to the Jewish community for what had happened, also acknowledging it was at a time of rising anti-semitism in Canada. His remarks to the largely Jewish audience were received with applause.<\/p>\n The plot thickens<\/p>\n Telling the story in real time from the couple\u2019s point of view, the main action of the 96-minute film begins on the fateful morning of October 7, 2023, when the Tibons emerged from their daily swim in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Tel Aviv.<\/p>\n The clock starts ticking when Noam Tibon receives an urgent text from his son Amir, a journalist at the Hebrew daily Haaretz. Amir, who lived with his wife and two young daughters on Kibbutz Nahal Oz near the Gaza border, wrote his father that Palestinian terrorists were inside their kibbutz.<\/p>\n \t IDF troops walk through Kibbutz Nahal Oz, near the Gaza border, on October 20, 2023, following the October 7 Hamas onslaught. (Yonatan Sindel\/Flash90)<\/p>\n Noam and Gali didn\u2019t hesitate. Noam grabbed his gun, and the couple jumped into their car and bravely drove south as the Hamas-led invasion unfolded. After saving the lives of two Nova festival survivors and a badly wounded IDF soldier, Noam joined the battle, killed a number of Hamas terrorists, and, with the help of several IDF soldiers, ultimately saved his family. More than 60 IDF soldiers and 15 civilians were murdered in Kibbutz Nahal Oz and an adjacent military base.<\/p>\n The story is well known in Israel and abroad, thanks in part to Amir\u2019s book, \u201cThe Gates of Gaza,\u201d published last year, and has been featured widely on the news, including in the United States, where Noam appeared on \u201cNBC Dateline\u201d and \u201c60 Minutes.\u201d It has also been the subject of\u00a0numerous newspaper articles and podcast interviews \u2014 but never has it been filmed in such a graphic and compelling manner.<\/p>\n In the documentary, the Tibons begin the account of that dark day from their house in Tel Aviv. The filmmakers then travel with the couple on the torturous route they took, hearing how, despite the presence of thousands of terrorists in the region, Noam and a small group of soldiers finally arrived at the kibbutz and rescued his traumatized family along with 400 other kibbutz residents.<\/p>\n \t Director Barry Avrich attends the premiere of his documentary \u2018The Road Between Us: The Ultimate Rescue,\u2019 at Roy Thomson Hall during the Toronto International Film Festival in Toronto, on September 10, 2025. (Photo by Cole BURSTON \/ AFP)<\/p>\n \u201cWe filmed it in real time to retrace their steps that day,\u201d director Avrich told the rapt audience during the question-and-answer period after the showing, \u201cbecause we wanted to ensure that the story was from their perspective.\u201d<\/p>\n And it is. Punctuated by time stamps, texts, and dramatic film footage of that day, the documentary has a powerful sense of tension and immediacy. It also captures the shock the Tibons felt that day when the unthinkable happened \u2014 Israel was invaded and caught ill-prepared.<\/p>\n It was clear, under LaFlamme\u2019s questioning, that the shock lingers for the two heroes. When she asked Noam how it felt returning step by step to all the places that he had been on that most horrific day, he paused, his emotions clearly visible before he described how difficult it had been. Asked about her reaction to seeing the film, Gali replied, \u201cI still don\u2019t believe it happened to us.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/AFP__20250910__743Y2MM__v1__HighRes__CanadaEntertainmentFilmFestivalTiff-e1757591544866-640x400.jpg\")
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