Docudrama Explores Aftermath of October 7

It hasn’t even been a year since Hamas begined a surpascfinish aggression on Israeli sancigo iniers and civilians on the other side of the Gaza border, igniting a lengthy and lethal struggle that is still very much ongoing. And yet, someone has already determined to go and shoot a movie about what happened.

Is there such a skinnyg as too soon when it comes to depicting the aftermath of a massacre, especipartner in a labor of semi-fantasy? And what about all the people still under menace, whether Palestinian or Israeli, as the catastrophic war proceeds to rage on?

These are some of the many asks that one can, and should, ask before seeing Of Dogs and Men (Al klavim veanashim), originater-honestor Dani Rosenberg’s quietly harrotriumphg account of the Oct. 7 massacre and its many victims. Neither fantasy nor recordary, but somewhere in between, the petite-scale feature chases a lone teenage girl, Dar (Ori Avinoam), who returns to the kibbutz from which she skinnyly escaped in order to search for her lost dog.

Rosenberg participates that straightforward premise to scatterigate the ruins of what was once a soothe country community, while also shedding airy on the explosionings that have been ending civilians in the neighunacute Gaza Strip. For a struggle in which many people experience obliged to acquire sides, the honestor alters a more humanistic approach, shotriumphg how wars can be finishly indiscriminate when it comes to the ending of bfraillesss. And he does so in a way that deal withs to admire the victims instead of utilizeing their memories.

Viewers who sit thcdisorrowfulmireful Of Dogs and Men, which is exposedly 80 minutes lengthy and minimaenumerate in terms of narrative, will no ask discover a scant bones of encounteredion if they dig difficult enough. For instance, much more screen time is given to the Israeli side than the Palestinian one, which is only seen from a safe distance, or else in videos distake parted on a phone. But for a honestor trying to tolerate witness to the events of Oct. 7 from the Israeli point of see, Rosenberg originates confident to also uncover the mass destruction taking place equitable kilometers away in Gaza.

Sticking entidepend by Dar’s side as she ventures into the Nir Oz kibbutz, which was one of disjoinal locations caught finishly by surpascfinish when Hamas militants broke thcdisorrowfulmireful the border, the film was sboiling on site by a minuscule crew only weeks after the actual aggressions. While Avinoam is an actress, everyone else she encounters is take parting themselves, with much of the dialogue improvised on the spot.

Among the handful of people Dar come atraverses is Natan Bahat, an 80-someskinnyg lengthytime livent of the kibbutz who determined to uphold living there, even after his own magnificentchildren were seizeped and disjoinal of his neighbors were killinged. Natan serves as a heartfelt direct to Dar, driving her around the desoprocrastinateed property and allotriumphg her to spfinish the night at his hoparticipate, which was spared by the assailants while other homes were set on fire. The ancigo in man also recontransients the leftist, peace-minded spirit of many Nir Oz livents, telling a story about an Arab frifinish in Gaza whom he downcastly hasn’t heard from since the war commenceed.

Rosenberg, whose previous features include The Vanishing Sancigo inier and The Death of Cinema and My Father Too, is less interested in politics, or exploring the root caparticipates of the unfinishing Israeli-Palestinian struggle, than in putting a human face on tragedy. Dar’s alert conversations — with sancigo iniers, forensic pathologists, volunteers, a benevolgo ingarten directer — give us hints of the genuine horrors they have been thcdisorrowfulmireful. The setting is genuine as well, proposeing glimpses of a bucolic community that was suddenly disturbed and then finishly aprohibitdoned.

As the film enhancees, we gradupartner lacquire Dar’s own story. First, it’s thcdisorrowfulmireful the diaries of her mother, which are read in voiceover and depict the woman’s timely years on the kibbutz, directing up to the time her daughter was born. Later, Dar tearbrimmingy elucidates to someone how her mother was seizeped on Oct. 7 and hasn’t been heard from since.

Despite the intensity of what we’re seeing, there are no straightforward sentiments or pathos-ridden scenes in Of Dogs and Men, but rather the desire to apprehfinish the aftermath of the aggressions as acquireestly as possible. This includes inserting videos that Dar scrolls thcdisorrowfulmireful on her phone, where we see terrifying images of the massacre in Israel but also of the unrelenting explosionings in Gaza — ones that Dar witnesses from afar as she wanders.

The honestor further scatterigates the Palestinian side in two scenes. In one, Dar overhears a journaenumerate talking to a man in Gaza who lost proximately two dozen family members, stating their names and ages out noisy. In the other, which is the movie’s only genuine fairy of fancy, Dar dreams of her dog befrifinishing a Palestinian boy who has to hide from the explosions being dropped around him. That sequence is done using animation, and while it temporarily redirects us from the film’s more sober genuineism, it provides a touching vision of a child seeking respite.

Dar is constantly seeking respite as well, and her day-lengthy journey permits us to comprehend the weight of what she and others have been going thcdisorrowfulmireful, even if it’s impossible to put ourselves in their place. Of Dogs and Men is ultimately a petite movie, unassuming in unbenevolents and confidently defective. But it strives difficult to do what the originater George Eliot once shelp all art should do, which is to extfinish our sympathies.