The Road Between Us

"Having gone to that kibbutz, I was extraordinarily overwhelmed with how beautiful it was and how it was once a great source of life and agricultural productivity."

"I at least wanted to contribute the profits of this film to help rebuild it."

"When  you walk through the streets there, and you look at the empty houses, and  you look at the remnants of mortar shells on the streets and houses with bullet holes and smashed-in doors and windows, you know, it must be rebuilt."

"It should not be some kind of a monument of what's happened...I'm hoping that it is rebuilt, and we're going to do what we can to help."

Barry Avrich, Canadian filmmaker

In August of this past summer, Toronto International Film Festival organizers had announced that the film documentary 'The Road Between Us' would not be welcomed at this year's festival unless written permission was obtained from the group responsible for many of the scenes that unfolded in the documentary. These were scenes depicting the mass rape, mutilation, and slaughter of Israeli civilians and foreign farm workers through video cameras worn by Palestinian terrorists led by Hamas  operatives as they streamed in their thousands through southern Israel to pillage and destroy, and hunt down their victims while documenting the atrocities for the actual purpose of distributing the results on social media sites as 'victories' against the 'occupation'. 

 

The unspeakably vile psychopathy of the marauding terrorists was deliberately self-videoed for the distinct purpose of 'public relations'. Actions of inhumane, sadistic cruelty perpetrated on vulnerable families -- some of whom were burned alive in their homes...parents and their children...while others were taken as hostages into Gaza to be held as prisoners, ill-treated, tortured, starved and in some instances murdered before they could be  released through prisoner exchanges -- were meant by Hamas leaders to be freely released to social media sites as celebratory events. 

 

Yet the TIFF organizers felt justified in insisting that there was a legal requirement for the videos shown in the documentary film to have the permission of a terrorist group that they be viewed as part of a recapitulation background in explanation of the protagonist, a retired Israeli general, launching a desperate bid to save his son and his son's family from the depraved savagery of atrocities being committed by the operatives of that very same ilk who had shot the videos. And from them permission be sought to give the required legitimacy enabling TIFF to accept the showing of the documentary.

 

That stunning insistence immediately captured the outraged attention of the public, of government figures, of film associations, all of whom condemned the TIFF requirements as beyond insultingly absurd, a backhanded slap to the victims of terrorism, while legitimizing the source of their agony. Leading TIFF to rescind their demand that the assent of Hamas be sought to show their vile videos, as the originators of the footage. Initially, TIFF gave permission for the film to b e given a private showing to which the response was so overwhelming, a wider, open showing resulted.

 

The film itself documents Noam Tibon, the retired Israeli general, in his race to rescue his family at Kibbutz Nahal Oz on the day of the Hamas invasion. According to the Israel Defense Forces, Kibbutz Nahal Oz had been infiltrated by some 180 terrorists on October 7, 2023. On that dreadful day thirteen of the Kibbutz residents were murdered, while eight were abducted by Hamas terrorists, as fodder for exchange for Palestinian criminals found guilty of various crimes in Israeli courts of law, and imprisoned.

 

Since the film was completed, the film's protagonist, Noam Tibon, moved to live part time at Nahal Oz "as a symbol to people to come back". Many families, traumatized by the unspeakable events that took place on that fateful day, are loathe to return and to face those haunting memories, and to resume their lives there. "There's a lot of horrendous scar tissue and memories. You have people that lost families, or families that were wiped out", explained the filmmaker. To Avrich, as it is to retired general Tibon, the story of Nahal Oz is one of resilience and growth.

Since its premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in early September the documentary has gone from strength to strength. TIFF announced four days after its screening that the picture had won the People's Choice Documentary Award. The Road Between Us had its theatrical release on October 3, in theatres across North America, earning over $50,000 in its first weekend. A complete turnaround from when TIFF CEO Cameron Bailey pulled the film from its roster because it failed to meet "legal clearance for all footage". 

 

Director Barry Avrich, left, and retired Israeli general Noam Tibon arrive on the red carpet to promote the documentary The Road Between Us: The Ultimate Rescue at the Toronto International Film Festival on Wednesday. (Chris Young/The Canadian Press)

 

"I'm very proud of the community that's come out and supported in a major way."

"I anticipated certain issues that the film would have, as all films of a similar topic have had, but certainly not the incredible global support, which was really a catalyst of the TIFF [Toronto International Film Festival] nightmare."

Barry Avrich