As someone who has spent countless hours immersed in documentaries, I must say that Yariv Mozer’s “We Will Dance Again” is one of the most harrowing and impactful films I have ever seen. The raw emotion, the brutal reality, and the sheer terror portrayed in this film are a stark reminder of the horrors that occurred on October 7, 2024, at the Nova Music Festival in Israel.
For numerous individuals, the traumatic events of October 7 in Israel are etched in their minds rather than witnessed directly. Some graphic footage from that day, occurring far from the Gaza border following a sudden influx of Hamas militants who arrived on motorcycles and dangled from vehicles while brandishing AK-47s and shooting indiscriminately, was distributed piecemeal across news broadcasts and social media platforms. The footage displayed to the public last year was limited, primarily due to sensitivity. This footage was obtained via smartphones of Nova Music Festival attendees or through CCTV cameras outside roadside shelters, surveillance cameras along the roadsides, or dashcams before their abrupt terminations, at which point over 400 festivalgoers were either killed or abducted.
On September 24, “We Will Dance Again” premieres on Paramount+, and director Yariv Mozer crafts a story based on the experiences of the victims during the tragic events of October 7. As 3,500 festival-goers at an open-air music event in the Negev desert emerged from a night filled with drugs, dancing, and trance music to witness rockets exploding overhead, they gradually comprehended that they were sitting targets in what would soon become a bloodbath. Mozer skillfully incorporated cell phone videos captured by attendees as they scrambled to safety, as well as footage from Hamas’ GoPro cameras worn by their combatants. This footage serves as a chilling record of the unfathomable, with images depicting both perspectives of the terror that sparked the ongoing Israel-Hamas War.
It’s no exaggeration to say that this documentary is incredibly intense, and it may be too tough for some viewers.
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[The director] expressed they were exceptionally beautiful and youthful in spirit, yet somewhat naive,” he told the nearly full audience at the Temple Emanu-El Streicker Cultural Center on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, which included representatives from The Hollywood Reporter. “These individuals arrived at this gathering with their pure intentions of love, peace, and freedom. Yet, they encountered the greatest evil that humanity was capable of on that fateful day.
Throughout approximately an hour of the movie, spectators take refuge in a refrigerator alongside one woman, capturing her fear on selfie videos as Hamas militants pursue their hunt across the festival grounds, gunning down with AK-47s; observe cell phone recordings from panicked festival attendees, some disclosing they were still under the influence of LSD or ecstasy from the previous night; witness brief glimpses in festivalgoers’ footage as they flee in terror, showing others being hit by bullets; bodies, many of them, are visible along the road after a traffic jam transformed into an easy target for Hamas militants who charged in.
In some instances, you might recognize the scenes and individuals. Here, a joyful Shani Louk is depicted, dancing and reveling in the festival, just hours before she was abducted by militants into Gaza. On October 31st, it was confirmed that Louk had passed away when a piece of her skull was identified as bone debris. Subsequently, an extended CCTV recording chronicles the instances of extraordinary courage, where Aner Shapira successfully disarmed seven Hamas grenades from a fallout shelter, shielding terrified festival attendees; he perished when one detonated, and also severed the lower arm of American-Israeli Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who was then taken captive. His remains were discovered by the Israeli Defense Forces in August, following appeals for his return made by his parents at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
Goldberg-Polin’s ordeal, which lasted nearly 11 months in Gaza, should be indelibly etched into the memories of those who heard his parents’ heartfelt appeals for his release. Mozer’s film chronicles this unbearable experience, along with other distressing, harsh, and difficult-to-watch moments of unspeakable loss and remarkable courage, in a way that leaves no doubt about their reality. The individuals portrayed in the film express the hollow fear and profound confusion that many of them still grapple with concerning what occurred on that fateful day; these young Israelis range from stunned to enraged, to friendly, to ashamed. As they recount their experiences, viewers may find themselves smiling at a festivalgoer’s admission that he didn’t want his mom to learn about the drugs he took during the festival, and just as easily cringe later on, when another survivor reveals his reluctance for his mother to see images of his skinned remains on Telegram, hanging from a tree.
In the film “We Will Dance Again,” Mozer endeavors to find a glimmer of hope amidst the despair and ruined lives, but it’s a tough proposition given the grim reality portrayed in the documentary’s closing scenes. The movie leaves viewers with profound sadness or unyielding fury, possibly because some critical questions are left unexplored. For instance, it is revealed that the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) took six hours to respond as countless pleas for help were made by these young people, frantically calling while fleeing Hamas gunfire or seeking refuge in trash cans and shrubbery. Remarkably, Mozer chooses not to delve into this issue or the refusal of Israel to initiate an investigation regarding the delay.
During a screening in New York, Mozer expressed bewilderment about how a collaborator obtained Hamas footage used in a surprising reverse shot within the movie, hinting at the current situation. He proposed that the delay in rescue efforts could be due to the challenge of gathering young soldiers who are spread across the country on a day of Shabbat. However, he acknowledged that there remain unanswered questions. For the benefit of his film’s subjects and its purpose as a chilling documentation, Mozer hopes it will aid in finding answers to these queries.
We Will Dance Again premieres Sept. 24 on Paramount+.
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2024-09-23 16:25