Avi Nesher's New Film Explores October 7th Trauma Through Intertwined Love Stories
Translated & summarized from Ynet by baba
Director Avi Nesher's new film, "Our Loves," explores the trauma of the October 7th massacre through multiple intertwined love stories. Based on real events, the movie focuses on characters' struggles for survival and connection amidst the chaos. It avoids overt heroism, emphasizing the instinct to survive and find solace in togetherness. The film offers a cinematic interpretation of the event, moving beyond raw footage to create a narrative with national significance.
The story in 6 lines · by baba
- Avi Nesher's new film "Our Loves" examines the October 7th massacre through interconnected love stories.
- The movie features multiple characters grappling with survival, love, and loss during the attack.
- Nesher's approach focuses on human survival and the emergence of "togetherness" from national trauma.
- The film intentionally avoids explicit naming of those responsible for the massacre.
- Performances, music, and editing are praised in the film's cinematic portrayal of the event.
- "Our Loves" is considered a significant work in shaping the cinematic memory of the October 7th massacre.
Director Avi Nesher's latest film, "Our Loves," tackles the complex and ongoing trauma of the October 7th massacre, three years after the event. The film, which draws from real stories, focuses on various love stories that were tested or shattered by the events of that day. Nesher intentionally weaves together multiple narratives, reminiscent of Robert Altman's style, to acknowledge the impossibility of fully capturing such a profound national and personal trauma.
The movie follows characters like Shavi, a police officer undergoing a difficult divorce; Milli, a police officer hiding her relationship from her conservative mother; Sapir, a religious young woman seeking new love at the Nova festival; and a young DJ trying to save his parents amidst their marital crisis. Other characters include a Nova festival security guard and a group of inexperienced youths who form an impromptu rescue unit.
Nesher's film avoids glorifying heroism or cheap patriotism, instead focusing on the raw survival instinct of individuals who had no choice but to fight for their lives and loved ones. While the film touches on the failures that led to the massacre, it refrains from explicitly naming those responsible, with criticism voiced only by the characters themselves. The film explores the emergence of a "togetherness" ethos, born not from a desire for belonging but from a national fracture that makes clinging to others an act of survival.
"Our Loves" is seen as a counterpoint to Nesher's 2021 film "Image of Victory," which examined the mythologizing of historical events. While "Image of Victory" looked at the past from a distance, "Our Loves" grapples with a recent trauma whose collective meaning is still forming. The film frames the October 7th events using popular cinematic conventions, diverging from the raw, smartphone-recorded footage that defined the public's initial experience of the massacre. Nesher's approach seeks to imbue the event with narrative coherence and national meaning, posing questions about how to tell the story of October 7th when the experience itself was fragmented and often too horrific to witness.
The performances are highly praised, with Shalom Michaelashvili and Magi Azarzar highlighted for their portrayals of heroism without overt nationalism. Daniel Gimple is noted as a discovery, and Lev Leib Levin adds a surprising romantic dimension. The powerful score by Tom Oren and dynamic editing by Yitzhak Tzahayek also receive commendation. Ultimately, "Our Loves" is presented as a significant, albeit painful, addition to Nesher's cinematic map of the Israeli experience, shaping the cinematic memory and identity of the nation.
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